Radiation chemistry of polybutene-1

Molecular weight changes and gel content measurements of moderately isotactic polybutene-1 following gamma irradiation at ambient temperature, show that both scission and crosslinking occur with G values of 3.2 and 1.0 respectively. C-13 NMR shows there is also a loss of stereoregularity. The G value for the loss of isotactic pentads is 13.9, considerably less than that for polypropylene. Thus the amount of temporary chain scission is significantly less during the irradiation of polybutene-1 than with polypropylene.