A proposed mechanism for the degradation of addition polymers in cavitating ultrasonic fields

A mechanism for the degradation of polymer molecules in ultrasonic cavitation has been proposed which takes into account the energy released by imploding cavitation bubbles in the form of hydrodynamic waves. Relationships for degradation rate constant and limiting chain length linking with the cavitation energy have been derived and are compared with published results on 1% solutions of polystyrene in benzene. These results show satisfactory agreements with the theory presented when the cavitation wave energy is taken proportional to the energy supplied to the ultrasound generating transducer.