- Author
-
Nyden, M. R.
|
Forney, G. P.
|
Brown, J. E.
- Title
- Molecular Modeling of Polymer Flammability: Application to the Design of Flame-Resistant Polyethylene.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
-
Macromolecules,
Vol. 25,
No. 6,
1658-1666,
1992
- Keywords
-
polyethylenes
|
flammability
|
thermal degradation
|
char
|
crosslinking
|
molecular weight
|
simulation
|
validation
|
ionizing radiation
- Identifiers
- molecular dynamics; reaction channels
- Abstract
- Molecular dyanmic simulations of the thermal degradation of polyethylene were used to idenfity factors which might be effective in reducing polymer flammability by promoting the formation of a residual char. Computer movies of the calculated trajectories indicate that corss-linked polymers, such as those obtained from exposure of polyethylene to ionizing radiation, will undergo further corss-linking when burned, eventually forming a high molecular weight, thermally stable char. This prediction was confirmed in flammability tests of gamma-ray-irradiated polyethylene.