《UV aging behaviour of ethylene-v inyl acetate copolymer s (EVA)》.pdf

Polymer Degradation and Stability 95 (2010) 725e732 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Polymer Degradation and Stability journal homepage: www.elsevi /locate/polydegstab UV aging behaviour of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) with different vinyl acetate contents Jing Jin, Shuangjun Chen, Jun Zhang * College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing 210009, China a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: The mild UV aging of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) with two vinyl acetate (VAc) contents Received 2 June 2009 (14, 18 wt%) was performed in a xenon arc source chamber. The degradation mechanism was analyzed Received in revised form via attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), gel content and high 8 February 2010 temperature gel permeation chromatography (HTGPC). Photo-chemically induced deterioration was first Accepted 18 February 2010 initiated from vulnerable VAc units. Ketone formation preceded lactone generation, especially in EVA Available online 23 February 2010 with high VAc content. Un-stable structures induced further degradation in the main chain. Competition between radiation induced cross-linking and chain scission in EVA was observed, and the later was Keywords: EVA confirmed to be dominant.