Thermal degradation of crosslinked high density polyethylene

摘要

Thermal degradation of crosslinked high density polyethylene (HDPE) has been investigated by the thermal and spectroscopic methods for development of HDPE as a thermal energy storage material. HDPE was crosslinked to 10 Mrad by electron beam irradiation. For thermal degradation studies, the crosslinked HDPE was kept in air or vacuum at 150℃ for 1000 h. The crosslinked HDPE was severely degraded in air but almost no degradation was observed in vacuum. Analysis by DSC, XRD and ~13C NMR spectroscopy showed that thermal degradation was correlated with the crystallinity of the crosslinked HDPE. The crystallinity completely disappeared and the amorphous phase increased with thermal degradation in air. The thermal stability and charge/ discharge performance of the crosslinked HDPE were compared with those of the uncrosslinked HDPE.