Cellulose radiation effect

Arthur, J. C., Jr. "Radiation Effects on Cellulose" in Energetics and Mechanisms in Radiation Biology, G, 0. Phillips, Ed., Academic Press, London, 1968, pp. 153-181. 

Vazquez, MI de Lara, R Galan, P Benavente, J. Modification of cellulosic membranes by y-radiation Effect on electrochemical parameters and protein adsorption. Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochem. Eng. Aspects, 2005, 270-271,245-251. 

Foldvary, C., Hargittai, P., Borsa, )., and Sajo, I. (2000) Effect of combined gamma-irradiation and alkali treatment on cotton-cellulose. Radiat. Rhys. Chem., 57, 399-403. 

Weathering. This generally occurs as a result of the combined effect of water absorption and exposure to ultra-violet radiation (u-v). Absorption of water can have a plasticizing action on plastics which increases flexibility but ultimately (on elimination of the water) results in embrittlement, while u-v causes breakdown of the bonds in the polymer chain. The result is general deterioration of physical properties. A loss of colour or clarity (or both) may also occur. Absorption of water reduces dimensional stability of moulded articles. Most thermoplastics, in particular cellulose derivatives, are affected, and also polyethylene, PVC, and nylons. 

UV absorbers have been found to be quite effective for stabilization of polymers and are very much in demand. They function by the absorption and harmless dissipation of the sunlight or UV-rich artificial radiation, which would have otherwise initiated degradation of a polymer material. Meyer and Geurhart reported, for the first time in 1945 [10], the use of UV absorber in a polymer. They found that the outdoor life of cellulose acetate film was greatly prolonged by adding phenyl salicylate (salol) [10]. After that, resorcinol monobenzoate, a much more effective absorber, was introduced in 1951 [11] for stabilization of PP, but salol continued to be the only important commercial stabilizer for several years. The 2,4-dihydroxybenzophenone was marketed in 1953, followed shortly by 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone and other derivatives. Of the more commonly known UV absorbers, the 2-hydroxybenzophenones, 2-hy-droxy-phenyl-triazines, derivatives of phenol salicylates, its metal chelates, and hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS) are widely used in the polymer industry. 

An effective method of NVF chemical modification is graft copolymerization [34,35]. This reaction is initiated by free radicals of the cellulose molecule. The cellulose is treated with an aqueous solution with selected ions and is exposed to a high-energy radiation. Then, the cellulose molecule cracks and radicals are formed. Afterwards, the radical sites of the cellulose are treated with a suitable solution (compatible with the polymer matrix), for example vinyl monomer [35] acrylonitrile [34], methyl methacrylate [47], polystyrene [41]. The resulting copolymer possesses properties characteristic of both fibrous cellulose and grafted polymer. 

When the source of initiation is altered from ionising radiation to UV, analogous additive effects to those previously discussed have been found. For reasonable rates of reaction, sensitisers such as benzoin ethyl ether (B) are required in these UV processes. Thus inclusion of mineral acid or lithium perchlorate in the monomer solution leads to enhancement in the photografting of styrene in methanol to polyethylene or cellulose (Table V). Lithium nitrate is almost as effective as lithium perchlorate as salt additive in these reactions (Table VI), hence the salt additive effect is independent of the anion in this instance. When TMPTA is included with mineral acid in the monomer solution, synergistic effects with the photografting of styrene in methanol to polyethylene are observed (Table VII) consistent with the analogous ionising radiation system. 

The inclusion of mineral acid in the grafting solution has recently been shown to increase the radiation copolymerisation yield, particularly when styrene is grafted to trunk polymers like wool (3) and cellulose (4) i.e. polymers which readily swell in polar solvents such as methanol. This acid effect is important since for many copolymerisation reactions, relatively low radiation doses are required to yield finite graft. The process is particularly valuable for monomers and/or polymers that are either radiation sensitive or require high doses of radiation to achieve the required graft. 

A theory for this acid effect has been developed essentially from the wool and cellulose work (3,4). Recently, in a brief communication, we reported analogous acid enhancement effects in the radiation grafting of monomers such as styrene in methanol to nonpolar synthetic backbone polymers like polypropylene and polyethylene (5). In the present work, detailed studies of this acid enhancement effect are discussed for the radiation grafting of styrene in various solvents to polyethylene. The results are fundamentally important since most of the experiments reported here have been performed in solvents such as the low molecular weight alcohols which, unlike cellulose and wool systems, do not swell polyethylene. 

Odian et a1 (Refs 113,133 150) showed that the deflagration rates of many composite AP solid propints were affected by gamma doses of 5 x I07 R. Two poly sulfide-based proplnts (Thiokol TP-L-3014 and TP-L-3014a) showed rate decreases, polyurethane (Thiokol TP-6-3129), polyacrylate (Hercules HES-6420) and polyacrylonitrile (HES-6648) based proplnts showed increases, while hydrocarbon (Thiokol TP-H-3062) and cellulose acetate (Hercules HES-5808) proplnts showed no changes in deflagration rate. Since the composite propint formulations contain various additives besides the binder and oxidizer, an effort was made to determine the effect of radiation on the deflagration rates of binder and oxidizer separately and independent of additives... 

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