Modification of new polymer materials based on aminostyrene by irradiation

The ultra-violet (UV) irradiation induced modification of the mechanical and optical properties of several polymer composites containing 4-aminostyrene and glycidyl methacrylate and their dependences on radiation dose, structure and ageing have been investigated. The nano- and microindentation techniques were used for determination of the mechanical parameters of as-grown and irradiated materials. The light-induced structural changes result in an increase of the hardness and elastic modulus of the polymer layers up to five and three times, respectively. It is also shown that the influence of polymer structure is significant. The conditions for improvement, degradation and stabilization of physical properties by UV irradiation were established. Load and depth sensing indentation has proved to be a powerful tool for an accurate estimation of mechanical properties of cross-linking polymer compositions. Variable-energy positron annihilation spectroscopy (slow-positron beam technique) was developed to measure defect depth profiles in the near-surface region. The increase of S-parameter with the increase of nano-hardness and elastic modulus has been determined for these materials.