Polymer aging under environmental conditions causes deterioration of service properties.Understanding the aging behavior and mechanism is important not only for lifetime prediction,but also for material improvement and development.Therefore,comprehensive charac-terization of polymer materials during aging is crucial.In this review,various analytical methods for characterization of chemical changes,physi-cal changes and service properties are introduced.Based on that,methods for stabilization evaluation and lifetime prediction,especially sensi-tive evaluation methods are reviewed.Chemical changes include molecular weight changes by chain scission and crosslinking,functional group changes on the surface and in the bulk,formation of free radicals,formation of small molecular species as the degradation products,and chemi-cal distribution by heterogeneous aging and additives migration.Physical changes include crystallization changes(post-or chemi-crystallization)and morphology changes(cracking,debonding,etc.).Service property changes include deterioration of processability,mechanical properties,electrical properties and appearance.In the end,existing problems and future research perspective are proposed,including relationship be-tween chemical/physical changes and service properties,introduction of modern mathematical and computer tools.
Chemical changePhysical changeService propertyStability evaluationLifetime prediction
Xuan Liu、Rui Yang、Zhi-Ping Xu、Yan Ye、Guo-Shuo Tang、Min Zhao、Qian Zhang、Xiang-Ze Meng
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School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering,Hefei Normal University,Hefei230601,China
Department of Chemical Engineering,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China