Weather-Induced Degradation Study of High Density Polyethylene Using the Photoprobe

Introduction

Three mechanisms of polymer degradation have been known as enzymatic, hydrolytic and oxidative. The oxidative degradation is caused by free radicals that are formed by the ultraviolet radiation from the sun at elevated temperature. These free radicals lead to bond cleavage in the polymer chains in the presence of oxygen. Traditional degradation study takes from hours to days to complete due to limited light intensity. CDS’s Photoprobe uses free-space focusing technology improving the light intensity to 800 mW/mm2 within 260–400 nm irradiation wavelength, which reduces the time on weather-induced degradation study down to minutes.