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

• 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

• experiments), to obtain further insight into the role of environmental free-radical oxidants, such as NO3• and HO•, in promoting polyester degradation. Experimental General procedures The irradiations were performed under a continuous gas flow (argon) in a Rayonet photochemical reactor (λ = 350 nm). Before