Abstract
By analysing the experimental data for individual elementary steps in the photochemical oxidation of pure polyolefins and by considering the kinetics of the process as a whole, it is shown that the latter is a chain reaction with degenerate photobranching by hydroperoxides and carbonyl compounds and quadratic chain termination. The available data are sufficient to describe the process at a quantitative level under any conditions. The use of this reaction as a model made it possible to elucidate the characteristic features of the photochemical oxidation of thermally stabilised and oriented polyolefins.
The bibliography includes 68 references.