Application of radioisotopes for corrosion tests of industrial plastics

Radioisotopes have been used for investigation of the aggressive media penetration into plastics. Both the penetration depth and the amount of penetrated medium can serve as a measure of the corrosion resistance. The total amount of the penetrated medium has been measured by the liquid scintillation counting method. The autoradiographic method has been employed to investigate the depth distribution of the penetrated medium. The reference penetration depths can be compared and statistically tested in order to evaluate the corrosion resistance of various plastics under different conditions. (author)