Polymers in Applications Effects of Processing and Processes

The electrochemical properties of conductive polymer systems are important with regard to understanding the electrochemical doping process and in applications of conductive polymers as battery electrodes. We have developed a computational method, based on the Valence Effective Hamiltonian technique, which is remarkably effective in the computation of oxidation and reduction potentials of a variety of conjugated polymers (polyacetylene, polyphenylene, polythiophene, polypyrrole) and their oligomers. 

The solution oxidation technique allows the study of polyolefin autoxi-dation under conditions where the temperature, concentration of reactants, and rates of radical initiation can be controlled. The results should be considered as a useful prelude to any fundamental understanding of the autoxidation processes which occur in neat polymers where the effects of very high viscosity, partial crystallinity, and oxygen diffusion rates are included. The objective of our work was to determine the kinetics and stoichiometry of the inhibited autoxidation of polypropylene in solution. A relatively detailed study of the oxidation of polypropylene inhibited by 2,6-di-terf-butyl-4-methylphenol [butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)] has been made for comparison with data obtained in polypropylene oxidations inhibited by a variety of other stabilizers which include commercial polyfunctional antioxidants. Singly hindered phenols appeared to be superior in the inhibited-solution oxidation of polypropylene, and the application of this finding to stabilization technology was investigated briefly. 

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