THE EFFECTS OF HIGH-ENERGY RADIATION ON THE SURFACE-CHEMISTRY OF POLYSTYRENE - A MECHANISTIC STUDY

Irradiation of polystyrene by 15 Mrad gamma or exposure to a 254 nm ultraviolet (UV) light source leads to surface oxidation of the polymer to depths greater than 10 nm as opposed to approximately 3 nm depth offered by either plasma or corona-discharge treatment. Oxidation increases linearly with UV irradiation time. More carboxyl (O=C - 0) acid functionality, which increases with depth, was detected for UV-treated polymer. With 3 Mrad gamma irradiation, only hydroxyl (C - 0) groups were detected by XPS as the surface-oxidized species. ADXPS, GPC, and static SIMS data suggest that chain scission is the dominant degradation mechanism for polystyrene exposed to high gamma and UV radiation, respectively.