Acceleration Factor for Polymer Degradation by UV Light Exposure

Polycarbonate (PC) is a widely used material in electronics enclosures. Consequently, in outdoor environments PC is often exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light from solar radiation. It is well documented that PC will photo-oxidize under solar radiation, which leads to yellowing and changes to material properties. This work seeks to establish a method to calculate an acceleration factor (AF) between samples aged both naturally in the field and artificially under high intensity lamps. Through spectral analysis of the lamps and knowledge of the photo-oxidation reaction, we can estimate the AF between test samples and field deployments. This will allow simulating UV exposure in materials within much shorter durations than could be achieved by simply aging materials outside in sunny locales as is frequently suggested.