• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.307-315
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• 2023

The physical and chemical changes exhibited by high density polyethylene (HDPE) after treatment with hydrogen at a pressure of 90 MPa followed by rapid release of the hydrogen were studied. X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, thermo gravimetric analysis, and attenuated total reflectance (ATR)-fourier transform infrared (FTIR) were used for this purpose. As a result, it was found that the degree of crystallinity of HDPE decreased after hydrogen pressure treatment, while the average thickness of lamellae that constitute the crystals and the melting temperature of the crystalline region actually increased. The decomposition temperature also increased by about 3℃. In addition, it was found that the hydrogen bonding network between -OH groups in the HDPE sample was strengthened and partial chain scission occurred. These cut chains were found to be terminated by oxidative degradation such as cross-linking between chains, -C=O, -C-O, and -CHO, or by the formation of -CH₃ at the chain ends, as confirmed by ATR-FTIR.