ABSTRACT
Nitrogen oxides are toxic and aggressive compounds in the atmosphere. For the stabilization of polymeric materials to these gases it is necessary to develop a knowledge of their mechanism of reaction with these gases. Nevertheless, data on the mechanism of interaction of nitrogen oxides with solid polymers are few in number1 compared with the abundant literature dedicated to research on liquid phase reactions. 2 In order to recognize the features of the reaction mechanism in polymers, the nature of molecular and free radical products must be identified together with identification of the type of active bonds of the monomer links which are responsible for the initiation of the polymer degradation in the presence of nitrogen oxides. To solve the stabilization problem, it is essential to understand the role of the structural-physical organization of polymers on the kinetics and the mechanism of these reactions. It is interesting to consider, the interconnection between the reactivity of macroradicals and changes of the physical structure of the polymer media, for instance, as a result of the interface layer formation in filled composites. In the present work, the study of the mechanism of the nitrogen dioxide interaction with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) has been carried out along with investigations of the influence of the filler content on kinetics of the radical reactions.
