Molecular evolution of polymers through photoageing: A new UV in situ viscoelastic technique

Abstract

Dienic elastomers are highly sensitive towards oxidation. During UV exposure, both scission and/or recombination reactions compete which involves an evolution of the molecular structure of the material. We developed an in situ technique to monitor the viscoelastic property changes upon UV irradiation of polymers in a single experiment. We illustrated this photorheology technique in the case of two kinds of elastomers. From our findings, this method is assumed to bring significant new advantages. © 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.