Dose rate effects on the radiation induced oxidation of polyethylene

The yields and spatial distribution of the products arising from the in source oxidation of 50 μm LDPE films induced by 60-Co gamma radiations and by 300 kev electrons have been investigated as a function of the dose rate. The dose rate was found to have a strong influence on the reaction, the hydroperoxides and carbonyls yields at the lowest gamma dose rate of 0.04 kGy/h being decreased by a factor of about three with increasing the gamma dose rate up to 0.69 kGy/h and by a factor of about 30 when operating at the e-beam dose rate of 1.5 kGy/s. The carbonyls depth concentration profiles, the EPR measurements on radicals intermediates and the experiments of post-irradiation oxidation are consistent with the conclusion that, as far as the gamma irradiation is concerned, the observed dose rate effects cannot be imputed to oxygen diffusion control and/or to the chain branching via hydroperoxides decomposition coupled to the longer times between the initiation events. The hypothesis of the dose rate acting on the kinetic chain length of the radioxidation which in turn implies a substantially uniform distribution of radicals in the amorphous phase attained through spur expansion is proposed.