High Energy Electron Irradiated Polystyrene: Free Volume and Thermal Properties Studied by PALS and DSC

Arunava Mandal¹, Sandip Pan¹, Subrata Mukherjee¹, Achintya K. Saha¹, C. Ranganathaiah² and Asmita Sengupta^1,

¹Physics Department, Visva-Bharati Central University, P.O.- Santiniketan, West Bengal, India

²Department of Studies in Physics, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore, India

Cite this paper:
Arunava Mandal, Sandip Pan, Subrata Mukherjee, Achintya K. Saha, C. Ranganathaiah and Asmita Sengupta. High Energy Electron Irradiated Polystyrene: Free Volume and Thermal Properties Studied by PALS and DSC. Journal of Polymer and Biopolymer Physics Chemistry. 2013; 1(1):26-30. doi: 10.12691/jpbpc-1-1-5

Abstract

The variation in the microstructure in terms of free volume and the thermal properties, such as specific heat(C_p), glass transition temperature(T_g) of 8 MeV electron irradiated Polystyrene (PS) at different doses have been measured using Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) respectively. PALS results showed that at irradiation dose 75 KGy the free volume of the polymer matrix decreases suggesting cross liking of the inter chain and structure appears to be stabilized. In the DSC measurements the specific heat at constant pressure suggests the scission of chains at 100 KGy which is well reflected in the increase of the free volume at this dosage. The observed changes in T_g are not prominent and do not really reflect the changes in free volume upon irradiation.

Keywords:
positron annihilation lifetime differential scanning calorimetry polystyrene free volume specific heat

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