Mechanical-Property Changes of Polymeric and Composite Materials after Low-Temperature Proton Irradiation

Effect of gamma and neutron irradiation on the mechanical properties of Spectralon™ porous PTFE

“…Of these materials, polymers, which are used as elastomeric seals, structural elements and electrical insulators among other applications, are at greatest risk of deterioration from exposure to this ionizing radiation. The effects of gamma irradiation [1,2,3,4,5,6], combined gamma and thermal (0.025eV) [7,8] or fast (>1 MeV) 9 neutron irradiation, combined gamma and electron irradiation [10], electron [11], and ion irradiation [12,13,14] on a wide variety of polymers are well characterized, principally because of the ready availability of cobalt-60, nuclear reactor, and accelerator sources that can conveniently provide radiation doses up to 10 6 Gray (Gy) or more. The effects of 14 MeV neutrons alone on polymers, however, are not well characterized, because of the lack of controlled sources sufficiently intense to produce appreciable damage in an exposure period of acceptable duration.…”

Effect of proton irradiation on structure and optical property of PTFE film

“…But compared with other factors such as electron and ultraviolet, the study of the effect of protons on the polymer is limited, especially the effect of protons with energy of a few tens to 200 keV energy. Most of the existing results about effect of protons on polymers were carried out for the nuclear industry [7][8][9], in which the proton energy lied in the range of hundreds MeV. The aim of this article is to study the irradiation effects of protons with tens to hundreds keV on the PTFE film degradation.…”