Rheological Analysis of Irradiated Crosslinkable and Scissionable Polymers Used for Medical Devices under Different Radiation Conditions

SATTI, A.J.; RESSIA, J.A.; CERRADA, M.L.; ANDREUCETTI, N.A.; VALLÉS, E.M.

RADIATION PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY (OXFORD)

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2018

0969-806X

The effects on different synthetic polymers of distinct types of radiation, gamma rays and electron beam, under differentatmospheres are followed by changes in their viscoelastic behavior. Taking into account the two main radioinduced reactions,crosslinking and scissioning of polymeric chains, liquid polydimethylsiloxane has been used as example of crosslinkable polymerand semi crystalline polypropylene as example of scissionable polymer. Propylene - 1-hexene copolymers have been alsoevaluated, and the effects of both reactions were clearly noticed. Accordingly, samples of those aforementioned polymers havebeen irradiated with 60Co gamma irradiation in air and under vacuum, and also with electron beam, at similar doses. Sinusoidaldynamic oscillation experiments showed a significant increase in branching and crosslinking reactions when specimens areirradiated under vacuum, while scissioning reactions were observed for the different polymers when irradiation takes place underair with either gamma irradiation or electron beam.