γ-Ray irradiation stability and damage mechanism of glycidyl amine epoxy resin

Irradiation stability of triglycidyl-p-aminophenol (TGPAP) epoxy resins was evaluated according to the changes of physico-chemical and mechanical properties under 60Co γ-ray irradiation with a dose rate of 10 kGy/h. The result shows that with the increase of radiation dose, bending strength, thermal stability, free radical concentration and storage modulus of epoxy resin decrease first, then increase slightly, and decline sharply at the end with a dose of 960 kGy, due to competition effects between radiation-induced degradation and cross-linking reaction. The damage mechanism was derived by analyzing structure and composition change of AFG-90 resins after irradiation via IR and XPS. Irradiation will result in weak bond breaking such as CC and CN bond, and new bond forming like CC and CO.