Abstract
The process and mechanism of the photodegradation of Polyphenylene-ether [poly (oxy-1-4 (2, 6-dimethyl phenylene)) PPE] have been studied with a Xenon arc lamp and a monochromatic light source in the National Institute for Basic Biology at Okazaki, Japan. The absorption peak at 280nm of irradiated film increased with increasing the irradiation time. However, when irradiated film was dissolved in chloroform, this absorption peak deacreased as the irradiation time increased. This suggested that the absorption peak at 280nm was due to the crossslinking structure of the side chain. On the other hand, the absorption peak at 340nm, increased by irradiation of monochromatic light at 300nm wavelength, that indicated the formation of a quinone-methide. In the case of the photodegradation of PPE, the experimental results in the irradiation with polychromatic and monochromatic sources showed that the shorter wavelength caused the decomposition and crosslinking of the PPE side chain, but the coloring was produced by the relatively longer wavelength light.
