Characterizations for the Polymer Aging

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Analysis and Characterization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2024 | Viewed by 1182

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China
Interests: polymeric composites; three-dimensional visualization; fluorescence; chemiluminescence; room-temperature phosphorescence

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymers and their products have been widely applied in various fields ranging from medical, agriculture and construction to military affairs. For the polymers in service, aging occurred inevitably under external conditions such as heat, light and humidity. Polymer aging has caused wide concern as an inducement of severe accidents and long-term environmental pollution. Therefore, effective and accurate characterization methods were needed to detect the aging signal and monitor the aging evolution, to ensure the polymers are durable in life and degradable on demand.

This Special Issue, “Characterizations for the Polymer Ageing”, focuses on the latest developments in the characterization strategies for aged polymers. Different characterization techniques on the different aging stages for the polymers are welcomed in this Special Issue, involving the early-initiation, radical-accelerated, chain-broken and late-aging stages. Papers addressing research articles or reviews could be discussed in this field.

Dr. Rui Tian
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • characterization technique
  • polymer aging
  • polymer degradation
  • spectral analysis
  • imaging analysis
  • structure–performance correlation
  • lifetime prediction
  • dynamic studies

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

17 pages, 3304 KiB  
Review
Aging of Plasma-Activated Polyethylene and Hydrophobic Recovery of Polyethylene Polymers
by Miran Mozetič
Polymers 2023, 15(24), 4668; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15244668 - 11 Dec 2023
Viewed by 824
Abstract
Available literature on the aging of plasma-activated polyethylene due to hydrophobic recovery has been reviewed and critically assessed. A common method for the evaluation of hydrophobic recovery is the determination of the static water contact angle, while the surface free energy does not [...] Read more.
Available literature on the aging of plasma-activated polyethylene due to hydrophobic recovery has been reviewed and critically assessed. A common method for the evaluation of hydrophobic recovery is the determination of the static water contact angle, while the surface free energy does not reveal significant correlations. Surface-sensitive methods for the characterization of chemical composition and structure have limited applicability in studying the aging phenomenon. Aging is driven by thermodynamics, so it is observed even upon storage in a vacuum, and hydrophobic recovery increases with increasing temperature. Storage of plasma-activated polyethylene in the air at ambient conditions follows almost logarithmic behavior during the period studied by most authors; i.e., up to one month. The influence of the storage medium is somehow controversial because some authors reported aging suppression by storing in polar liquids, but others reported the loss of hydrophilicity even after a brief immersion into distilled water. Methods for suppressing aging by hydrophobic recovery include plasma treatment at elevated temperature followed by brief treatment at room temperature and application of energetic ions and photons in the vacuum ultraviolet range. Storing at low temperatures is a trivial alternative, but not very practical. The aging of plasma-activated polyethylene suppresses the adhesion of many coatings, but the correlation between the surface free energy and the adhesion force has yet to be addressed adequately. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterizations for the Polymer Aging)
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