Degradation of addition polymers by ultrasonic waves. III. Experimental

The degradation of an addition polymer sample (polystyrene) has been studied. In conformity with theory, the process of degradation does not proceed below a limiting chain length. A rate constant has been derived. The experimental size distributions of the polystyrene at different stages of the degradation have been determined and compared with their corresponding theoretical distributions. The experimental values of the number of broken links at the early stages of degradation have been determined photometrically and compared with their corresponding theoretical values as derived from the theory of ultrasonic degradation. Satisfactory agreement has been found between experiment and theory for the main features of the degradation.