Improvements of physical and mechanical properties of electron beam irradiation—crosslinked EVA foams

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer foams were prepared and crosslinked by using high‐energy electron beam (e‐beam) radiation (10 MeV). The effect of parameters such as irradiation dose, the contents of foaming agent, radiation activator, and radiation sensitizer on improvement of physical and mechanical properties of the EVA foamed samples were investigated. The foams were obtained through a four‐step process of melt mixing, forming, crosslinking, and foaming. During the melt mixing process EVA was compounded with different amounts of azodicarbonamide (ADCA) as a blowing agent, zinc oxide (ZnO) as a radiation activator, and trimethylol propane‐trimethacrylate (TMPTMA) as a radiation sensitizer. The samples were compression molded into flat sheets at low temperature (110°C) and were then radiation‐crosslinked by 20–80 kGy e‐beam. Finally, the crosslinked samples were converted to foams by a high temperature (210°C) compression molding process. The foamed samples were analyzed in terms of gel content, density, compression molding set, tensile properties, and micro‐structural features. It was found that an increase in absorbed radiation dosage increases crosslink density, elasticity, percentage recovery, tensile strength, and compression properties of the EVA foams. Due to the increased recovery the percentage of compression set was reduced. Similarly increasing the TMPTMA content in the formulation increased the crosslink density and the resulting mechanical properties. Contrary to these findings, addition of ADCA led to the formation of extra gases which in turn reduced the crosslink density, and resulted in the deterioration of the mechanical properties and hence an increase in the compression set. However, addition of ZnO and TMPTMA led to the formation of smaller and more uniform cell size with improved mechanical properties. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.