| Abstract: | ![]()
A study was carried to determine experimentally the crosslinking of irradiated polypropylene by ultraviolet rays in vacuo. Three methods of detecting crosslinking were used: measuring the degree of swelling in decalin at room temperature, measuring the gel fraction in a tetrachloroethylene solution of the irradiated sample, and comparing the infrared spectra before and after irradiation. It was found that as the time of irradiation increases, the degree of swelling decreases, whereas the gel fraction in tetrachloroethylene solution increases. This shows that the crosslinking reaction proceeds with time. On the other hand, the infrared spectra of the irradiated sample remained almost unchanged, which shows that different bond species can hardly be formed by irradiation in vacuo. From these facts it may be concluded that the measurements amply confirm the hypothesis. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that ash residue in polypropylene plays an important role in photocrosslinking; that is, the photochemical primary process of the reaction is the absorption of light by the ash residue. |
