Photochemistry of Polymer Films

Abstract

FORD¹ has reported that when nylon polymer films are irradiated in the presence of oxygen, a new absorption band develops around 2900 A., which increases in intensity on storage in the dark and is reduced on re-irradiation to about the pre-storage value. His explanation of this phenomenon with nylon films was that oxygen was directly responsible for this effect. We have recently been investigating this stepwise ‘post-irradiation effect’ and have found that it occurs with several other polymer films, is no less prominent in nitrogen than in oxygen, and is not restricted to a particular absorption band. It therefore seems doubtful whether these changes in absorption spectra are the result of the reaction of the polymer with oxygen.