Photoinitiated crosslinking of polyethylene

The main types of polyethylene (PE) crosslinking photoinitiators were examined. It was shown that the aromatic ketones and quinone are the best types of the photoinitiators for practical usage. The quantum yields of initiators' photoreduction and the crosslinking yields per one initiator molecule at the different stages of PE photochemical crosslinking were measured. The photoinitiators effectiveness dependence on their chemical structure was considered. The influences of the UV‐irradiation intensity, temperature, photoinitiators' concentration, some copolymers, polyfunctional monomers, peroxides additives on the photocrosslinking and photooxidation processes in PE were investigated.