Development of hardened PVF : PMMA polyblend: effect of gamma and electron irradiation

Abstract

Specimens of poly(vinyl formal) (PVF) : poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polyblends with different weight percentage ratios were subjected to gamma irradiation (1 to 50 Mrad) and electron irradiation (1 to 20 Mrad). The effect of irradiation on the strength of the blend specimens was studied by measuring the surface microhardness using a Vickers microhardness tester attached to a Carl Zeiss NU 2 Universal research microscope. Significant changes were observed in the Vickers microhardness number, H_v. The H_v values of gamma irradiated specimens are found to be higher than the unirradiated specimens indicating an occurrence of radiational crosslinking. The maximum value of H_v is obtained at the gamma radiation dose of 15 Mrad. In case of electron irradiation the radiational crosslinking is found to take place for the blend specimens having lower wt% content of PMMA (0 and 1 wt%) in PVF matrix. On the other hand degradation of polymeric system is observed for the blends having PMMA content more than 1 wt‰ The maximum value of H_v is obtained for all the blend specimens at the electron irradiation dose of 8 Mrad. The degree of crosslinking in polyblends due to gamma irradiation is found to be more than electron irradiation. The scissioning mechanism is found to predominate in the polyblend system in case of electron irradiation.