Characterization of the surface degraded layer of polymers using an indentation method

In this study, we have proposed an indentation method to characterize a surface degraded layer due to UV light irradiation of polymers. Here, we assume that the degraded layer has a homogeneous and isotropic nature, and that the target material is a bilayer system (i.e., the degraded layer is formed on the substrate of the non-degraded base material). This method enables the quantitative measurement of mechanical properties (Young’s modulus E...