Photostabilizing of bisphenol A polycarbonate by using UV-absorbers and self protective block copolymers based on resorcinol polyarylate blocks

Theoretical Analysis of Properties of Ground and Excited States for Photodissociation of the C-O Bond in Polycarbonates

Quantum chemical calculations were carried out to investigate the properties of the ground state (GS) and the excited state (ES) of bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC) with bisphenol-A hydrogen carbonate (BPAHC) as a model compound. Time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) was used to obtain the absorption spectrum and the corresponding transition natures of BPAHC. Furthermore, the ESs related to the transitions of the carbonate group and neighboring phenyl ring were optimized employing the TDDFT method for photodegradation. Our results showed that the carbonate group is broken at an ES with relatively high energy, which has a significant C-O bond cleavage within the carbonate group compared to that of GS geometry. The carbonate group C-O bond cleavage is caused by two reasons. One is the transition from the O lone pair to the carbonate π anti-bonding which is commonly known, and the other one is the transition from the O lone pair to the phenyl group (adjacent to the carbonate group) π anti-bonding that is newly proposed.

Effect of environmental conditions on the durability of polycarbonate for the protection of cultural heritage sites

Polycarbonate is a good material for covering and protecting cultural heritage sites because of its durability, mechanical properties, and transparency. However, polycarbonate degrades under environmental weathering with a significant decrease of physical and mechanical properties and loss of transparency. In this work, the contemporary presence of ultraviolet irradiation and different temperature and moisture conditions have been taken into account to study the environmental degradation of this polymer with regard to its mechanical and optical properties. The photo-oxidation reactions cause a decrease in the molecular weight and the formation of many oxygenated species. The hydrolytic scission, instead, gives rise to a remarkable reduction in the molecular weight. These two different degradation mechanisms do not seem interconnected because at the lowest degradation temperature and high humidity levels, the reduction of the molecular weight is more pronounced than that observed at the highest temperature but at a lower humidity level. Transparency decreases with the degradative processes, but even after severe degradation the loss of transparency is only about 10%. The yellowness index increases during the first stages of degradation, which has been attributed to the fast formation of carbonyl groups due to photo-oxidation.

Effects of Melanin on Optical Behavior of Polymer: From Natural Pigment to Materials Applications

Melanin is a kind of ubiquitous natural pigment, which serves a variety of protective functions in many organisms. In the present study, natural melanin and synthetic melanin nanoparticles (NPs) were systematically investigated for its potential application in polymeric optical materials. A significant short-wavelength shielding and high visible light transparency polymer nanocomposite was easily obtained via tuning the melanin particle size. In particular, the nanocomposite film with melanin NPs (diameter ≈ 15 nm) loading even as low as 1 wt % blocks most ultraviolet light below 340 nm and still keeps high visible light transparency (83%) in the visible spectrum. More importantly, because of the excellent photoprotection and radical scavenging capabilities of melanin, the resulting polymer nanocomposite exhibits outstanding photostability. In effect, such fantastic melanin NPs is promising for applications in various optical materials.