Effect of accelerated protons on the molecular-topological structure and thermal stability of poly(vinylidene fluoride)

The bombardment of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with accelerated protons in vacuum results in the release of gaseous products and the destruction of cluster junctions in its pseudo-network structure, which pass to the crystalline ones of three modifications with different temperatures and rates of melting, the molecular mass of crystallized chains, and their weight fractions. The composition of gaseous products indicates that, upon proton bombardment, the detachment of fluorine or hydrogen atoms yielding H2 and HF occurs as the main process, and the scission of the carbon chain hardly takes place in this case.