Effect of gamma irradiation on nylon 6 films : swelling study

This paper reports on swelling studies of γ-irradiated nylon 6 films undertaken to investigate the effects of γ-irradiation in finer details. Benzyl alcohol has been used as the swelling agent. The kinetics of weight swelling of γ-irradiated nylon 6 films in benzyl alcohol was studied at different irradiation doses in the range 0 - 28.8 Mrad. It is observed that with increasing irradiation dose upto 14.4 Mrad the swelling, and hence the diffusion process are retarded; moreover, the sigmoidal nature of the percentage weight swelling vs (time)sup(1/2) plot is augmented. Above this critical dose the swelling and diffusion processes are accelerated. Besides, the sigmoidal behaviour recedes and is converted into linear behaviour at 28.8 Mrad. This behaviour indicates that a relaxation-controlled non-Fickian diffusion process is at work below 28.8 Mrad while at 28.8 Mrad a Fickian process is established. A significant effect on the equilibrium swelling in benzyl alcohol is observed. The plot of equilibrium weight swelling vs irradiation dose at 23deg C shows an initial decrease of swelling upto 3.6 Mrad at which swelling starts decreasing at accelerated rate in the dose range 3.6 - 7.6 Mrad. The rate slows down appreciably between 7.00 and 14.4 Mrad, above which there is a rapid fall. The results are correlated with scission and crosslinking processes through relative viscosity determination of formic acid solutions of the irradiated samples. It is established by combining viscosity data with kinetics and equilibrium swelling data that, besides scission, crosslinking processes are also at work in nylon 6 in the irradiation dose range 0 - 3.6 Mrad. It has been possible to bring out this point because the swelling technique seems to be preferentially sensitive towards crosslinking. (author)