《Hydrolytic and photoche mical aging studies of a Kevlar》.pdfVIP

Polymer Degradation and Stability 96 (2011) 1411e1419 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Polymer Degradation and Stability journal homepage: www.elsevi /locate/polydegstab Hydrolytic and photochemical aging studies of a Kevlar-PBI blend * Carlos Arrieta , Éric David, Patricia Dolez, Toan Vu-Khanh Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, 1100 rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal QC H3C 1K3, Canada a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: The focus of this work is the study of the hydrolytic and photochemical aging behavior of a Kevlar-PBI Received 13 October 2010 blend fabric. Tensile tests carried out on yarns extracted from this fabric after either irradiation with UV Received in revised form light or exposure to high humidity indicated a continuous decrease of the breaking force with exposure 11 April 2011 time. ATR-FTIR analyses of photo-chemically aged samples showed evidence of a photo-oxidative Accepted 18 May 2011 reaction initiated by the cleavage of the amide bond of Kevlar. The overlapping of the breaking-force Available online 25 May 2011 curves that was observed as the irradiance level was increased at constant temperature is believed to be caused by a “screen” effect produced by Photo-Fries products. The fact that at constant temperature Keywords: Kevlar