Abstract
Irradiation by ionizing radiation is a specific type of controllable modification of the physical and chemical properties of a wide range of polymers, which is, in comparison to traditional chemical methods, rapid, non-polluting, simple, and relatively cheap. In the presented paper, the influence of high-energy ionizing radiation on the basic mechanical properties of the melamine resin, phenol-formaldehyde resin, and nitrile rubber blend has been studied for the first time. The mechanical properties of irradiated samples were compared to those of non-irradiated materials. It was found that radiation doses up to 150 kGy improved the mechanical properties of the tested materials in terms of a significant increase in stress at break, tensile strength, and tensile modulus at 40% strain, while decreasing the value of strain at break. At radiation doses above 150 kGy, the irradiated polymer blend is already degrading, and its tensile characteristics significantly deteriorate. An radiation dose of 150 kGy thus appears to be optimal from the viewpoint of achieving significant improvement, and the radiation treatment of the given polymeric blend by a beam of accelerated electrons is a very promising alternative to the traditional chemical mode of treatment which impacts the environment.
Highlights
The modification of construction materials, including polymers, is inevitable, in order to achieve properties meeting all the requirements of increasingly-demanding practical applications [1]
The aim of the present paper is to investigate and model the influence of electron beam irradiation (EB) irradiation on the mechanical properties of the aforementioned polymeric composition which are commonly used as a polymeric matrix of friction composite systems in a number of practical applications, in the automotive industry [18]
The study addressed the changes in the tensile characteristics of the respective blend after irradiation with a 5 MeV electron beam, using the radiation doses ranging from 77 kGy to 284 kGy
Summary
The modification of construction materials, including polymers, is inevitable, in order to achieve properties meeting all the requirements of increasingly-demanding practical applications [1]. The interaction of incident electrons with molecules leads to ionization in the polymer and numerous highly-reactive forms are produced (such as free neutral radicals, radical cations and anions, low energy electrons, and singlet and triplet states of molecules excited by electrons) in a whole series of processes (such as fragmentation to carbocations and free radicals, capture of electrons by polymeric and oxygen molecules, dissociative capture of electrons, and others) [7]. Free radicals formed by dissociation of the molecules in their excited state or by the interaction of molecular ions, as well as molecular ions, can react by linking the polymer chains directly to the 3D network structure or by initiating grafting reactions. Chain branching and cross-linking increase the molecular weight of the polymer, while degradation or scission causes a reduction of the initial molecular weight
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