Chlorine loss from polyvinylchloride under neutron irradiation

PVC samples were irradiated for 1 hour with a thermal neutron flux of _th =4.71·10¹¹n·cm^–2·s^–1 and the chlorine lost during irradiation was measured by -ray spectrometry. About 15% of loss of chlorine has been observed for untreated samples while samples heated to temperatures of 60 and 80°C for one minute before irradiation have been found to loose about 8% and 3%, respectively. The results indicate an influence of the polymer structure on the release of chlorine.