Radiolytic crosslinking and chain scission in aliphatic and alkyl-aromatic polyamides—II

Abstract

Regression analysis of the radiation parameters of nine aliphatic polyamides exposed to ionizing radiation leads to the conclusion that the decline in the ratio of chain scission to crosslinking in higher aliphatic polyamides is best related to the linear increase in the methylene content of, or the number of methylene groups in, the polyamide repeat unit. G(crosslink) [ G(X)] and G(chain scission) [ G(CS)] values, however, do not correlate well with either of these parameters. Rather it is found that the major determinant of yields [about 80–85% of the variation for G(X), 70% for G(CS)] is the number of hydrogen atoms or methylene groups in the amine residue. A minor determinant [15% of the variation for G(X) and 30% for G(CS)] is the number of hydrogen atoms or methylene groups in the acid residue of the repeat unit. Significantly, although there was little sign of a decrease in G(CS) in the higher aliphatic homologues (up to 11 methylene residues per amide group), G(CS) is found to be positively related to the number of methylene groups in the amine residue but negatively related to the number of methylene groups in the acid residue. Thus although the amine residue dominates the radiolytic response, the acid residue plays a critical if lesser role in determining chain scission yields in polyamides. Thus a polyamide with the repeat unit —(CH 2) 3 n CONH(CH 2) n NHCO— would be predicted to have a very low or zero G(CS) and, if n is 10 or more, a G(X) comparable to that of polyethylene. Although, logically, the yields of crosslinks and chain scissions in polyamides would be expected to tend to that of polyethylene as the number of methylene groups in the repeat unit increases, use of two models assuming an exponential trend to the G(X) value characteristic of polyethylene in the analysis did not provide better fits to the data than the simple linear model referred to above. Indeed, the assumption of a significant exponential trend factor led to a marked drop in the goodness of fit.