Effect of Ozone on Fluoropolymers

Ozone is considered a reactive substance against plastics due to its ability to readily degrade into an atom and a molecule of oxygen. The atomic oxygen 

Resistance of polymers to ozone attack is studied in space environments in actual applications. In the laboratory, glow discharge or plasma etching is the common method for laboratory study of ozone effect. Plasma and low earth-orbit environments are not equivalent. For instance, oxygen plasma contains a variety of other particles including electrons and free radicals in addition to atomic oxygen. In contrast, atomic oxygen is the dominant constituent of low earth-orbit. 

Maximum oxygen uptake decreases with an increase in the fluorine content of the polymers. For example, pol5winylidene fluoride took up less oxygen as a result of O3 exposure than polyethylene, though more than PTFE, in the same experiment. The exception to this trend is polyvinyl fluoride, which has a higher etch rate than polyethylene (Table 

Why is PVF more susceptible to ozone attack than polyethylene  

Golubl l has proposed an explanation attributing the high etch rate of PVF to the ease of fluorine formation from the decomposition of this pol3mier. Fluorine promotes degradation of molecular oxygen to its active atomic form (O2 20), further reacting 

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