IMAGING OF AUTOXIDATION INDUCED CHEMILUMINESCENCE

Autoxidation induced polymer chemiluminescence has been measured with a position-sensitive, photon-counting detector to produce chemiluminescence images. The chemiluminescence intensity varies over the surfaces of some polymer samples. The localized response of chemiluminescence intensity to temperature leads to images of activation energy with the Arrhenius parameters shown for every position on the sample. High values of light intensity and high activation energies correlate with cracks and edges in a hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene/isophorone diisocyanate resin. Variations in the chemiluminescence Arrhenius parameters are caused by different rate controlling steps in the autoxidation reaction mechanism. Thus chemiluminescence imaging demonstrates lateral variation in the polymer autoxidation reaction mechanism. Autoxidation of polymeric material leads to polymer aging which can be studied with the new imaging chemiluminescence technique.