An Epr Investigation of Radiation Protection by Aromatic Additives in Synthetic Polymers

摘要

The research is a study of the protective effects against ionizing radiation that aromatic compounds provide when added to a synthetic polymer in various proportions. Since radiation damage in high polymer compounds is usually accompanied by the production of free radicals in the material, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques were utilized to measure the extent of the free radical concentration. Comparative measurements were made of the radiation-protective effects of different aromatic additives on polymethyl methacrylate. Data obtained from the EPR spectra was correlated with some of the theories currently advanced relating free radical formation, degradation and crosslinking during polymer irradiation. Degradation or multiple chain scission, is defined as the breaking up of the long molecular chains in a polymer into smaller units, whereas crosslinking is usually associated with increasing the number of lateral linkages between polymer chains. (Author)