Gaseous products of the bombardment of a tetrafluoroethylene–hexafluoropropylene copolymer with accelerated MeV protons

Abstract

The action of 1- to 4-MeV protons on a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene (FEP) in a vacuum is accompanied by the release of more than 25 gaseous products and a decrease in its thermal stability. During the course of proton bombardment, the predominant rupture of lateral C–CF₃ bonds with the release of CF₃ particles occurs along with the detachment of fluorine and hydrogen atoms yielding H₂ and HF. Unlike polytetrafluoroethylene, a distinctive feature of the radiolysis of FEP is a decrease by a factor of 5 in the probability of fluorine detachment from the FEP macromolecule by accelerated protons.