Radiochemical ageing of poly(ether ether ketone)

Emmanuel Richaud (1) , Paulo Ferreira (1) , Ludmila Audouin (2, 1) , Xavier Colin (1) , Jacques Verdu (1) , Carole Monchy-Leroy (3)

1 PIMM - Laboratoire Procédés et Ingénierie en Mécanique et Matériaux
2 LIM - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Matériaux
3 EDF R&D - EDF R&D

Thin (60 μm) and thick (250 μm) samples of poly(ether ether ketone) were subjected to radiochemical ageing at 24 kGy h -1 dose rate for doses up to 30.7 MGy at 60 °C in air. FTIR spectrophotometry (hydroxyl and carbonyl build-up), ATR microscopy (oxidation profiles), ammonia gaseous treatment (determination of carbonyl nature), density, DSC (glass transition temperature, cold crystallization and melting point changes), and gel content measurements (crosslinking) were conducted for examination of polymer degradation. Thin samples were shown to undergo principally chain scission process whereas thick ones undergo mainly crosslinking. This difference can be attributed to the kinetic control of oxidation by oxygen diffusion. A mechanistic scheme was proposed from radiochemical yields estimations.

Mots clés: Radiochemical ageing; Crosslinking; Poly(ether ether ketone); Oxidation; Chain scissions

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Emmanuel Richaud, Paulo Ferreira, Ludmila Audouin, Xavier Colin, Jacques Verdu, et al.. Radiochemical ageing of poly(ether ether ketone). European Polymer Journal, 2010, 46 (4), pp.731-743. ⟨10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2009.12.026⟩. ⟨hal-02269369⟩