Dose Rate Effects on The Radiation Oxidation of Polyethylene: Electron Beam vs Gamma Irradiation

The yields and spatial distribution of the oxidation products stemming from the oxidation of LLPE films induced by 60-Co gamma and by irradiation with 300 kev, 0.3 mA electrons in the dose range 0.04 kGy/h - 0.6 kGy/h (gamma) and at 1.5 kGy/hr ( e-beam) have been determined by applying a methodology involving FTIR microscopy (carbonyl products, resolution 10 μ), iodometric analysis (peroxides). The FTIR and EPR spectroscopies coupled with the multilayer technique (resolution 25 μ) were also employed for carrying on measurements of the film depth profiles of peroxyl radicals and their alky radicals precursors, radical decay kinetics, 'free' and ' bound' hydroperoxides and alcools. With gamma radiations the products yields are enhanced following the decrease of the dose rate from 0.7 to 0.04 kGy/h without substantial effect on the film depth distributions which appear rather uniform. Using e-beam (dose rate 1.5 kGy/h) a low level concentration limit is attained confined within the first 50 μ which is about 1 order of magnitude smaller as compared to gamma. The mechanistic implications inherent to the experimental results as well as the practical consequences related to the use of radiooxidation as a tool for inducing graft copolymerization reactions are discussed