A new approach of studying correlation between outdoor exposure and indoor accelerated corrosion test for high polymer materials

The correlation between outdoor exposure and indoor accelerated corrosion test for high polymer materials was investigated according to the variation of the functional group of exposure models aged. Environment aging intensities at different zones (Wuhan and Lasa with the same latitude) and the influences of indoor accelerating factors including water and ultraviolet on weathering performance of high polymer materials were also studied by comparing different indoor accelerated corrosion testing results. The experimental results show that: by testing variations of carbonyl exponent of polythene (which represented the degradation behavior of high polymer materials due to ultraviolet oxidation of double bond) and ultraviolet absorbance of polycarbonate (which represented the degradation behavior of high polymer materials due to abevacuation of branched chain), the degradation behavior of high polymer materials could be studied. Carbonyl exponent of polythene exposed in Wuhan and Lasa for 1 year was equal to that exposed in indoor cycle ultraviolet for 128 h and 170 h, respectively, the ultraviolet absorbance of polycarbonate exposed in Wuhan for 1 year was equal to that exposed in indoor cycle ultraviolet for 240 h. The ratio of environment aging intensity of Lasa to Wuhan was around 1.2. With the prolongation of cycle accelerated ultraviolet exposure time, the variations of carbonyl exponent of polythene and the ultraviolet absorbance of polycarbonate were in the same shape of first order exponential decay curve. Accompanied with ultraviolet, the effect of water condensated on the sample on weathering performance of polythene was more significant than that of polycarbonate.