Degradation of Drawn Polypropylene Filament Yarn by UVA and UVC Radiation

Photo-degradation of polypropylene has been the subject of multiple articles. Despite this multiplicity the effect of orientation on photo-degradation of polypropylene fibers has not yet been studied considerably and it is a disputable subject [1-4]. The present work is aimed to examine the effects of draw ratio of melt-spun drawn polypropylene (PP) filaments degradation using ultraviolet radiation of 100-280 nm wavelength (UVC) and 315-400 nm wavelength (UVA). Different analytical method is used to detect the effects of radiation, for the sake of brevity only a part of the results obtained from mechanical tests are reported here. As mentioned by several authors [1], breaking extension is used to detect the degradations.