Physico-chemical characterization of the blooming of Irganox 1076® antioxidant onto the surface of a silane-crosslinked polyethylene

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the blooming of Irganox 1076® onto the surface of a silane-crosslinked polyethylene. Preliminary studies on the commercial Irganox 1076® powder enabled to identify its crystalline structure and determine its main physico-chemical properties (characteristic IR absorption bands, melting properties, etc.). Then, the behaviour of Irganox 1076® in silane-grafted polyethylene was studied. Several films containing a concentration of Irganox 1076® ranged between 0.1 wt% and 2.1 wt% were characterized with FTIR spectroscopy and DSC. A peculiar attention was paid to the phase separation within the polymer bulk and the blooming of the antioxidant onto the polymer film surface. Then, this methodology was transposed to an industrial silane-crosslinked polyethylene containing at least 1 wt% of Irganox 1076® as in-service protective antioxidant. For this latter, optical microscopy was of great help for monitoring the blooming of Irganox 1076® onto the polymer film surface. In addition, the polymorphism phenomenon of Irganox 1076® was revealed by FTIR spectroscopy and DSC after thermal treatment at 70 °C under vacuum.