Electron Microscope Studies of Polymer Degradation

Degradation studies have been conducted on a dilute solution of a polyacrylamide, Polyhall 402, in distilled water with the aid of a simple rheometer, employing a capillary tube operating in the turbulent flow regime. The degraded samples, collected after each pass through the rheometer were analyzed with the aid of an electron microscope. The analysis showed how the polymer molecules fracture under turbulent shear with the fragments in solution approaching a symptotically an average molecular weight of approx. 1.0 x 10U6D after a number of passes. (13 refs.)