Abstract
It was confirmed that photodegradation of diene polymers in solutions is accelerated by the addition of carbazole as a sensitizer. The viscosities of the polymer solutions in chloroform were markedly lowered with UV-irradiation when carbazole was added to the solution. The decrease in the solution viscosities, along with FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra of the irradiated polymers, indicates that the degradation of the diene polymers proceeds through the autooxidation mechanism. It was inferred that the acceleration effect of carbazole on the diene polymer degradation was caused by carbazyl radical cation generated by the dissociation of CT complex between carbazole and solvent.
