Abstract
IN a detailed paper by Charlesby1 on the effects of irradiation on polyethylene, he suggested that the main effect was ‘cross-linking’, that is, the formation of covalent bridges between neighbouring molecular chains, with the consequent loss of hydrogen. Since then, there has been a tendency to refer to the effect on any polymer as ‘cross-linking’ when low irradiation doses show changed solubilities in normal solvents, increased melting points, and no gross chemical breakdown2, although other possible causes for these changes have been suggested3. It seems appropriate, therefore, to describe experiments on two of the polymers which have been specifically mentioned by Charlesby and Lawton, 66 nylon and ‘Terylene’.
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References
Charlesby, A., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 215, 187 (1952).
Charlesby, A., Nature, 171, 167 (1953). Lawton, E. J., Bueche, A. M., and Balwit, J. S., Nature, 172, 76 (1953).
Little, K., Nature, 170, 1075 (1952).
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LITTLE, K. Some Effects of Irradiation on Nylon and Polyethylene Terephthalate. Nature 173, 680 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/173680a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/173680a0
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