Damage of polyesters by the atmospheric free radical oxidant NO₃^•: a product study involving model systems

• Catrin Goeschen and
• Uta Wille

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1907–1916, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.225

• polymers, the mechanism of their degradation upon exposure to environmental oxidants is barely understood. In this work, model systems of important structural motifs in commercial high-performing polyesters were used to study the reaction with the night-time free radical oxidant NO3• in the absence and

• well as products of these reactions are potentially capable of promoting further degradation processes in polyesters under environmental conditions. Keywords: environmental oxidants; free radicals; nitrate radicals; polyester degradation; product studies; reaction mechanisms; Introduction Polymers

• •, O2 and O3. This work not only reveals new insight into the degradation mechanism in polyesters upon exposure to important environmental oxidants, but it also enables identification of vulnerable sites (‘hot spots’) in the polymer, which could open up new pathways to polyester degradation under