Gaseous products of the bombardment of a tetrafluoroethylene–hexafluoropropylene copolymer with accelerated MeV protons

Abstract

The action of 1- to 4-MeV protons on a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene (FEP) in a vacuum is accompanied by the release of more than 25 gaseous products and a decrease in its thermal stability. During the course of proton bombardment, the predominant rupture of lateral C–CF3 bonds with the release of CF3 particles occurs along with the detachment of fluorine and hydrogen atoms yielding H2 and HF. Unlike polytetrafluoroethylene, a distinctive feature of the radiolysis of FEP is a decrease by a factor of 5 in the probability of fluorine detachment from the FEP macromolecule by accelerated protons.