March 2025
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COMPARATIVE DEGRADATION OF POLYPROPYLENE USING HEAT AND ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT ABSTRACT Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer vastly used by many industries for packaging and are easily discarded to the environment. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of heat and ultraviolet light on polypropylene degradation at various time intervals. Polypropylene was subjected to heat degradation at 50oC, 70oC and 100oC and ultraviolet light at various time intervals of 3, 6 and 10 hours. The level of degradation was determined by the amount of undisolved residue of the treated sample in xylene. These results showed that heat degradation induced reduction in molecular size due to chain scission while UV treatment produced crosslinked molecules with reduced solubility.