Kinetics of destruction of stressed polymers

The infrared spectroscopy technique (IRS) was used for the investigation of polymer film destruction under the action of tensile stress and temperature. The structure and concentration of the stable chemical compounds has been found. The regularities of their accumulation as a function of time, temperature, and the magnitude of the applied load has been studied. These compounds are assumed to be formed due to the decay of free radicals arising from the breakage of the polymer macromolecules under the action of mechanical stresses and thermal agitation. It has been shown that both at room and at elevated temperatures the kinetics of the accumulation is controlled by the rate of breakage of the macromolecules, but not by that of the occurrence of subsequent reactions. The activation energy of formation of new stable products has been found.