E.s.r. study on permeation of oxygen in crosslinked polymers

Polymeric networks of methyl methacrylate (MMA)/ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) with various EGDMA levels were synthesized via bulk free-radical polymerization using an AIBN initiator and a programmed temperature rise. The trapped radicals in the polymer network were used to investigate the permeation of oxygen by electron spin resonance (e.s.r.). The decay rates of radical concentration in the temperature range, 110 to 180°C were used to estimate the permeability coefficients of oxygen. It was found that the permeability coefficient reached a peak value at about 70 wt% EGDMA, indicating that porosity of the network increased with EGDMA content reaching a maximum at 70 wt% EGDMA. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of poly(EGDMA) obtained using the oxygen permeability data was estimated to be 144°C, and the permeation activation energies below and above Tg were 7.3 kJ mol−1 and 58.3 kJ mol−1, respectively.