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Polymer degradation is the reduction in the physical properties of a polymer, such as strength, caused by changes in its chemical composition.Polymers and particularly plastics are subject to degradation at all stages of their product life cycle, including during their initial processing, use, disposal into the environment and recycling. [1]
When exiting a reactor after a polymerization reaction, many polymers still contain undesired low-molecular weight components. These component may make the product unusable for further processing (for example, a polymer solution cannot directly be used for plastics processing), may be toxic, may cause bad sensory properties such as an unpleasant smell or worsen the properties of the polymer.
In polymers, such as plastics, thermal degradation refers to a type of polymer degradation where damaging chemical changes take place at elevated temperatures, without the simultaneous involvement of other compounds such as oxygen. [1] [2] Simply put, even in the absence of air, polymers will begin to degrade if heated high enough. It is ...
That is, the polymer is unstable in a water based environment. This is the prevailing mechanism for the polymers degradation. This occurs in two stages. 1. Water penetrates the bulk of the device, attacking the chemical bonds in the amorphous phase and converting long polymer chains into shorter water-soluble fragments.
Plastic degradation in marine bacteria describes when certain pelagic bacteria break down polymers and use them as a primary source of carbon for energy. Polymers such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are incredibly useful for their durability and relatively low cost of production, however it is their persistence and difficulty to be properly ...
To determine whether a polymer will undergo surface or bulk erosion, the degradation rate of the polymer in water (how fast the polymer reacts to water) and the rate of diffusion of water penetrating through the material must be considered. If the degradation process is faster than the diffusion process, surface erosion will occur since the ...
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes introduced (and named) the concept of reptation into polymer physics in 1971 to explain the dependence of the mobility of a macromolecule on its length. Reptation is used as a mechanism to explain viscous flow in an amorphous polymer. [14] [15] Sir Sam Edwards and Masao Doi later refined reptation theory.
Polymer degradation is a change in the properties—tensile strength, color, shape, or molecular weight—of a polymer or polymer-based product under the influence of one or more environmental factors, such as heat, light, and the presence of certain chemicals, oxygen, and enzymes.