Ambient-Temperature and IR Laser-Induced Chemiluminescence from γ -Irradiated Polypropylene

Abstract

For some years we and other workers^1–3 have attempted to find ways to apply chemiluminescence to the study of polymeric materials. For certain substrates such as polypropylene, there is a fairly good correspondence between the rate of oxidation and the chemiluminescence emission, and this correspondence has been used to rank antioxidants. Most of this work has been carried out with samples heated at 100–150^°C. While the results are relevant to oxidation of the polymer during melt extrusion or other high-temperature processing, or for comparison with oven aging of stabilized polymers at those temperatures, the questionable validity of any subsequent extrapolation of test data to ambient temperature is generally acknowledged.