Chemiluminescence from oxidized polymer films

Figure 19 Chemiluminescence from oxidation of polypropylene containing 0.5 % wt. of Irganox 1010 at 150°C in oxygen. Line 1 represents the original polymer film line 2 is the same sample after 7,890 s of annealing at 130°C.

Equation (13) appears to be a good approximation for describing isothermal chemiluminescence kinetics for homogeneous systems where oxidation takes place uniformly. However, as has been shown by several authors [53-58], the different sections of a polymer sample may oxidize with its autonomous kinetics determined by different rates of primary initiation. A chemiluminescence imaging technique revealed that the light emission may be spread from some sites of the polymer film and the isothermal chemiluminescence vs. time runs are then modified, particularly in the stage of an advanced oxidation reaction [59]. 

After 10-min irradiation, the ir spectrum of the trans-polypentenamer film showed the expected weak 2.9 /x peak (O-H) without the 5.8 absorption (C=0), by analogy to 102-reacted 1,4-polybutadiene (20). Only minor changes in the spectrum were noted after decay of the chemiluminescence. In contrast to this result, the chemiluminescence from polymer films oxidized at 100 °C or singlet-oxygenated in solution and cast into films usually was invariant at 25 °C for several hours. 

Lacey, D.J., Dudler, V. Chemiluminescence from polypropylene. Part 1 Imaging thermal oxidation of unstabilized films. Polymer Degradation and Stability, 51 (1996), p. 101- 108... 

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