The changes in dielectric properties of elastomer by irradiation were studied for the following three cases. The sample used is tetrafluoroethylene-propylene copolymer. Case 1) The network concentration decreases and the concentration of C=O increases with increasing dose.
It was found out that G values are 1.38 for scission, 1.28 for cross-linking and 1.28 for C=O production in polymer when the irradiation is performed by γ ray at room temperature.
Both the dielectric the increment and relaxation time increase with increasing dose under this condition.
Case 2) The certain amount of C=O is added to the samples, which have different original cross-linking densities, by irradiation of y ray (0.2MGy) at 100°C.
The effect of the network concentration is small on changes in the dielectric increment by the irradiation. On the other hand, the relaxation time increases with increasing network concentration.
Case 3) Samples keep almost the same network concentration but concentration of C=O increases with increasing dose.
The operation of alternating irradiation of γ ray (60kGy) at 100°C and irradiation of electron beam (40kGy) keeps the network concentration constant.
The dielectri increment increases with the repetition of the operation. The relaxation time increases with increasing the repetition of the operation although the network concentration is kept constant.
The paper concludes as follows from the results mentioned above and a general idea, i.e. scission reaction of molecular chain occurs randomly during irradiation.
The dielectrc increment increases with the concentration of C=O which was produced by irradiation. The relaxation time does not depend on the network concentration but depends on the length of the free ends of the network chains which is assumed to have carboxyl and/or carbonyl groups.
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