ABSTRACT:The oxidation of low-density polyethylene by molecular oxygen was studied in the temperature range 80 -210°C. In the curves of temperature dependence of several parameters of inhibited oxidation, breaks were observed at the melting temperature, near 110°C. At this temperature, the preexponential factor calculated from the temperature dependence of the rate constant of inhibitor consumption changed 105 times, sharply increasing at the transition from the polymer melt to the solid polymer. This indicated that an essential difference existed between the properties of the intercrystalline amorphous polymeric substance and the completely molten one. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 978 -981, 2006 Key words: polyethylene; melting point; antioxidants; phase behavior; crystallization Polymeric substances differ from their low-molecular analogs in several ways, the most essential for the investigation of polymer oxidation processes are the virtual zero pressure of the polymer vapors and the combination of an extremely low transition mobility of their macromolecules and a high vibrational mobility. Polymer melting proceeds in relatively wide temperature range in which the amorphous substance coexists with the crystalline one. It was interesting to compare this intercrystalline amorphous substance with completely the molten polymeric one.In this study, we used the simplest polymer, lowdensity polyethylene. As the method of investigation, we used the inhibited oxidation of the polymer in the temperature range 80 -210°C, which included the melting temperature of this polymer (110°C). The antioxidant was 2,2Ј-methylene-bis(4-methyl-6-methylcyclohexylphenol) (MBP). A relatively high molecular mass of this antioxidant decreased the role of antioxidant evaporation in the course of oxidation. On the other hand, difficulties in the quantitative extraction of this heavy antioxidant caused us to use an indirect method to calculate the rate constants of antioxidant consumption from the concentration dependence of the induction period of inhibited oxidation.In polymeric substances, there is a substantial increase in the role of the cage effect compared to that in their low-molecular analogs, which results in a decrease in the yield of hydroperoxides from approximately 100% in hydrocarbons to 5-30% in polyolefins.1,2 The irregularities in polymer chain arrangement in the polymers are stable and may be considered the second component dissolved in the polymeric substance. 3 In crystalline polymers below their melting temperatures, crystalline structures appear, whose contents increase with decreasing temperature. In some cases, these structures behave as free-radical traps (more correctly, traps for free valences). It was interesting to examine whether the intercrystalline amorphous substance differed in its properties from the same substance in a completely molten polymer.The main steps of hydrocarbon polymer oxidation are analogous to those of low-molecular hydrocarbons:However, in the second step, RO 2 ⅐ ϩ ...