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Experimental study of UV induced tensile properties deterioration and chemical aging of polyurea–POSS composites

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation present in natural sunlight degrades the chemical and mechanical properties of polymeric matrices in composites. Polyurea possess a unique set of chemical and mechanical properties due to its complex microstructure comprising of hard and soft segments (phases). The primary objective of the work presented here is to characterize the chemical and mechanical degradation of pure polyurea and polyurea - polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanocomposites subjected to UV radiation exposure for 45 days. Control specimen in as-received condition (reference specimen) and UV-aged tensile test specimen are tested in the study. Analysis of Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectra for UV-aged polyurea and polyurea-POSS composites reveals that the addition of POSS nanoparticles accelerate the deterioration of polyurea matrix by breaking the hard phase network and altering the mechanism of degradation for the soft phase present in polyurea microstructure. The deterioration of hard and soft segments cause a significant reduction in tensile properties of polyurea-POSS composites.