Specific properties improvement of polycarbonate induced by irradiation at elevated particular temperature

highlights
• High hardness of the PC was prepared with electron beam radiation at a lower dose at high temperature.
• The irradiated PC specimens show an increase in wear resistance, tensile strength and impact strength with increasing dose.
• The lower irradiation causes an increase in the ordering character in the amorphous phase of the PC samples.
• Specific properties are supposed to be induced by molecular re-arrangement with synergetic effects by simultaneous irradiation with high temperature.

The properties and structures of polycarbonate (PC) changed by electron beam irradiation at the glass transition temperature (Tg) were investigated using the various measurements as thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and mechanical tests (tensile, hardness, wear, and impact properties). The Tg of irradiated PC sheets increases around 10 kGy, then decreases at high doses. Meanwhile, the ordered structure in the amorphous phase of samples was almost same up to 70 kGy by XRD. The wear resistance, hardness, and impact strength increased with dose and reached the maximum at around 10 kGy, then decreased at the higher doses. The tensile strength changed similar to impact strength, but the elongation at break decreased to the half at 10 kGy. The improvement of specific properties is explained to be dense molecular packing in matrix by re-arrangement of molecules with synergistic effects of radiation and thermal mobility via high temperature irradiation.