Degradation of Microcellular PET reflective materials used in LED-based products

• Hydrolytic degradation by humidity causes the reflectance decrease and embrittlement.
• Oxidative degradation by thermal aging causes a slight reflectance spectrum change.
• Color shifts to 0.0004 and lumen efficiency is reduced by 4.47% when crumbling.

Microcellular PET is an emerging reflective material used for solid state lighting. This paper experimentally investigated its degradation mechanisms and quantified both lumen decay and color shift effects of LED-based products with this material aged under different conditions. The results show that: (1) A humidity test at 85 °C & 85%RH for 4000 h (or even shorter) can lead to hydrolytic degradation, which causes both the obvious inconsistent decrease of reflectivity and a severe embrittlement; (2) Oxidative degradation occurred at 85 °C for 4000 h can cause a slight reflectance spectrum change, while the additional blue light exposure has little impact; (3) Color shift induced by thermal aging at 85 °C for 4000 h is 0.0001 and lumen efficiency decreased by 1.57%. When Microcellular PET falls off due to the embrittlement during humidity test, the color shift increases to 0.0004 and the lumen efficiency is reduced by 4.47%.