Polymer degradation and stability

After a polymer material is manufactured, the aging process started, accompanied by changes evolved from the macromolecular chemical structure, morphology to macroscopic appearance, and properties. There are five subtitles in this chapter. In the first section, there is an introduction to aging and degradation, and the inherent and external factors that influence the aging behavior of a polymer. Stability evaluation and characterization methods are also involved. In the following three sections, several typical degradation modes, that is, thermal degradation, thermo-oxidative degradation, photolysis, photo-oxidative degradation, hydrolysis, and biodegradation, are introduced, as well as the principle initiation, propagation, and termination reaction mechanism. Accordingly, the stabilization ways are involved. In the last section, degradation and stabilization of polymer nanocomposites are introduced, and the effects of nanofillers from various aspects, are analyzed.