Direct C-C bond breaking in the reaction of O(3P) with fluoropolymers in low earth orbit

Journal of Physical Chemistry A

Volumn 106, Issue 22, 2002, Pages 5463-5467

  Gindulyte, Asta ^a,b   Massa, Lou ^a,b   Banks, Bruce A ^c   Miller, Sharon K R ^c  

^a CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^b CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^c NASA GLENN RESEARCH CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CARBON CARBON BONDS; ELECTRONEGATIVITY; HARTREE-FOCK METHOD; LOW EARTH ORBIT;

CHEMICAL BONDS; DEGRADATION; GROUND STATE; PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION; REACTION KINETICS; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION;

FLUORINE CONTAINING POLYMERS;

EID: 0037030840     PISSN: 10895639     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/jp0132578     Document Type: Article

References (37)

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36. 3P). Given such study, we do point out that the main experimental results may be given an interpretation at least consistent with the theoretical results. We are aware many other mechanisms could be invoked, perhaps also consistent with the experimental results, but each such additional proposed mechanism would require its own additional study. In this paper, only breaking is the object of study.
37. In our ref 27 we described how chain beaking in hydrocarbons might result in an efficient degradation pathway, and diagrams were employed, to supplement the discussion of degradation. The premise we invoke is that short chain fragments produced by carbon-carbon bond breaking via backbone oxidaton can be volatile if they are sufficiently short and that the dominant cause for mass loss is volatilization of these short fragments. Consistent with this, we have degraded FEP Teflon using X-rays to cause chain scission and have found that, in sufficiently high doses, a liquid formed on the Teflon, which we believe was simply a collection of low molecular weight scission fragments.