Abstract
Abstract A number of investigators have established that the action of ultraviolet light on rubbers in the absence of oxygen causes considerable changes in their structure. For example, exposure of films of sodium-butadiene and natural rubbers results in a decrease of unsaturation and solubility, and by the evolution of gaseous products (hydrogen and methane), and exposure of rubber solutions by a decrease of viscosity at first, followed by gel formation. It has also been established that the simultaneous action of light and oxygen on rubbers causes even greater changes. However, the studies of the light oxidation of rubbers are fundamentally qualitative. Systematic data on the kinetic laws of these processes are lacking. The present study is devoted to the kinetics of the light oxidation of certain rubbers. Sodium-butadiene rubber was the principal object of study. Sheets of purified rubbers were photooxidized. The specimens were exposed to a mercury-quartz lamp PRK-2 at a distance of 25 cm. through a light-filter (pyrex glass), reflecting rays with λ=2960A˚ (these rays are not present in the sunlight which passes through the atmosphere). The kinetics of photooxidation were studied volumetrically in an apparatus described earlier.
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