Activation Energies of Polymer Degradation

Abstract

This chapter describes the activation energies of polymer degradation. The chapter illustrates the study of polymer degradation and durability. In this study, there is little reliable, predictive methodology that is universally valid over wide spans of temperature and time. Many of the high temperature “accelerated” oven tests have been deemed unrealistic for different mechanisms were prevalent. In the mean time, for practical reasons, experimental time spans of much longer than a year are extremely difficult to conduct. The chapter conducts a broad based study on the kinetics of polymer degradation. The Arrhenius activation energy has been used as the parameter to follow the rate dependence with temperature. The chapter explores the frequent observation that kinetic parameters obtained at high temperatures often lead to grossly optimistic results at ambient. When the activation energies from thermal processes are compared with the rate of surface embrittlement, a striking self similarity, or near identical activation energies at the same temperature is evident. Finally, this observation can lead to broader applications and further understandings on the polymer degradation.