Radiation stability of food packaging materials is the
key to ensuring
food quality. In this study,
60
Co γ-ray was selected
to investigate the radiation resistance of food packaging polystyrene
(PS) resin material, although the FTIR analysis showed that the intensity
of several peaks decreased slightly. The gel permeation chromatography
(GPC) results displayed that the value of peak molecular weight (Mp)
of PS went from 2.68 × 10
5
g/mol down to 2.22 ×
10
5
g/mol. Moreover, the residual mass (Res) of PS increased
from 7.208 to 30.23%, indicating that the tendency of coking of PS
was stronger after irradiation. In addition, the peak intensities
of the three main pyrolysis products −CH
2
–,
CH
4
, and CH
2
=CH
2
increased
by more than 30% compared to unirradiated PS, and a large number of
them were detected in the whole pyrolysis process. Moreover, mechanical
property analysis finds that both breaking strength and elongation
data increased before irradiation dose of 50 kGy, then, decreased
sharply with further increase of irradiation dose. The theoretical
bond order analysis confirmed that the tertiary carbon bond attaching
the benzene ring had the lowest bond energy. This study can give helpful
guidance when using PS for food packing materials.