This paper reports the study of embrittlement of PBT submitted either to thermal or hydrolytic ageing. All changes were followed up by tensile tests, rheometry in molten state and gel permeation chromatography for molar mass changes, SAXS and DSC experiments for crystallinity changes. Both kind of ageing were shown to induce predominant chain scissions with moderate crystallinity increase, in great part due to annealing. The combination of all results were used to establish a M w -χ c embrittlement window helping for a determination of an end of life criterion.

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