Open Access

ARTICLE

Study of the Neutron Radiation Effect on Bi-oriented Polyethylene Naphthalate Structure

A. BELOUADAH¹, S. BERDOUS^1,3, D. BERDOUS², M. IZERROUKEN⁴, N. SAIDI-AMROUN¹

1 Laboratory of Materials Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Sciences and Technology - Houari Boumediene (U.S.T.H.B.), El-Alia, Bab-Ezzouar, DZ-16111 Algiers, Algeria.
2 Laboratory of Hydrometallurgy and Inorganic Molecular Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Sciences and Technology - Houari Boumediene (U.S.T.H.B.), El-Alia, Bab-Ezzouar, DZ-16111 Algiers, Algeria.
3 High National School of Veterinary, DZ-16111 Algiers, Algeria.
4 Draria Nuclear Research Center, Sebala, Draria, DZ-16000 Algiers, Algeria.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2022, 39(1-2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2022.39.1-2.1

Abstract

In this work, neutron induced structural modifications, on the biaxially-oriented polyethylene naphthalate (BOPEN) film, were studied by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR/ATR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM). The irradiation with neutron was carried out, under air, at room temperature. The changes of the structure, in volume and in surface were evaluated under the impact of neutron’s flux composed by thermally neutrons and fast neutrons. The X-ray technique showed the effect of the neutron flux’s fluence on the crystallinity of the BOPEN, which was also determined through the FTIR/ATR spectroscopy, traduced by the absence and (or) presence of the absorption bands characteristics of crystalline and amorphous phases. The SEM and PLOM characterizations, revealed a radical change in the texture of the surface which passes from an orderly homogeneous state, observed on the NIR-BOPEN film, to a degraded state, shown up in irradiated samples (IR-BOPEN) case.

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Keywords

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