Hello! I would like to carry out some experimentation of radiation treatment of polymers and its effects on the mechanical properties (depending on exposure rate and type of radiation).
Is there a tried and true method of carrying out this experiment, or is there a facility somewhere in the UK (or Europe) where I could contact them and forward my samples for testing?
Any help and advice would be appreciated.
Thank you!
I am not sure what kind of radiation treatment do you need, but you may try here:
https://www.elettra.trieste.it/
Dear Maria,
we just got the equipment for the UV resistance of the materials.
If you are interested, please let me know more about yours problems at adress :[email protected]. I look forward to fruitful cooperation.
Kind regards
Dr. Gedvidas
Lithuania
Hi Maria,
I think it would be useful to specify what kind of radiation and your application, for example if you were considering polymers for space applications, than the relevant kind of radiation would be UV plus VUV and ionizing radiation. Most likely you would need two different facilities to simulate each one.
However, if you are not testing for such harsh conditions, but for example for terrestrial use you might start from exposing your samples in a weathering chambers which are very common across universities.
Radiation testing can be costly (the cost of lamps or the source is substantial) and also quite time consuming - typically the tests are very long, just so you know and plan your experiments way in advance :)
Hello everyone, thank you for your replies.
I would ideally be looking at beta radiation, possibly gamma if there is a facility that would be able to handle that. I have read several papers on irradiating polymers to change/improve mechanical properties of the material and would like to do an comparative experimental review using various polymers (different grades and levels of crosslinking and filler content) to see what results I can obtain.
Hey there Maria,
You might wanna have a look at GSI over in Darmstadt (https://www.gsi.de/en/work/research.htm). They do cover those types as far as I know.
Hey Thanos,
Thank you for the suggestion :) I'll drop them an e-mail.
Hope you're doing well
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