Abstract
This paper describes the use of an x-ray diffraction technique to correlate rubber radiation damage with rubber composition. Correlations between radiation damage and composition are useful as guides for the development of superior radiation resistant elastomers to be used as components of mechanical devices installed in high nuclear radiation fields. Rubber which is stretched and irradiated in an inert atmosphere is readily damaged by chain cleavage, manifested by loss of crystallinity, possible thinning, decreased x-ray diffraction intensities and eventual rupture (Figure 1). Loss of diffraction spot intensity was used to measure radiation damage in stretched rubber, and was tantamount to loss of crystallinity with little specimen thinning until just before rupture. Crystalline longevity was determined fur an irradiated “standard” rubber under standardized conditions and for other rubbers which were similar to the standard except for an added or substituted ingredient. A greater crystalline longevity connoted a greater radiation resistance, and the standard was used as 3 basis for comparing radiation resistance and composition.