Imaging chemiluminescence technique applied to thermooxidation of polymers- possibilities and limitations

The imaging photon counting technique was introduced to study polymer oxida tion at the beginning of the 90s. The technique, referred to as imaging che miluminescence (ICL), enables the measurement of both the intensity and the spatial distribution of the weak luminescence from thermo-oxidised polymer s. In the short history of ICL measurements the technique has provided data of various aspects of the heterogeneous oxidation of polymers, e.g. diffus ion limited oxidation, localisation of stress induced oxidation and the phy sical spreading of oxidation. The advances in ICL are briefly summarised an d recent results obtained by monitoring the oxidation depth profiles in pol ybutadiene rubber and the physical spreading of oxidation between EPDM part icles are presented. The potential and the limitations of the technique are discussed in some detail.