Research results on the maintenance of composite antioxidants in extreme environments

Date：2025-03-15 Categories：News

Compound antioxidants: Effectiveness Guardian in Extreme Environments

Introduction: A wonderful world of antioxidant

In the world of chemical reactions, redox is like a dance that never stops. However, when this “dance step” is too intense, it can have destructive consequences – this is what we often call “oxidation”. Whether it is plastic, rubber or food, oxidation will make them weak, age, and even lose their original properties. To deal with this problem, scientists invented a magical substance – antioxidants.

But individual soldiers are often unable to fight, so compound antioxidants emerge. It is like an efficient team, cleverly combining multiple antioxidant ingredients and fighting in concert, so as to play a better protective role under a wider range of conditions. This article will explore in-depth how composite antioxidants maintain their effectiveness in extreme environments and reveal their mysteries through rich data and research results.

Next, we will analyze the basic principles, application fields and performance in extreme environments one by one, and combine specific cases and experimental data to present a complete picture to readers. I hope this easy-to-understand and interesting article will take you into this challenging and innovative scientific field!

Basic concepts and classifications of composite antioxidants

What are compound antioxidants?

Compound antioxidant is a mixture of two or more antioxidant ingredients of different functions. It does not simply superimpose a single antioxidant, but rather, through careful design and optimization of proportions, a synergistic effect is formed between the components, thereby significantly improving the overall antioxidant capacity. In other words, composite antioxidants are like a versatile team of superheroes, each with their own unique skills, but only unity can defeat powerful enemies (i.e., free radicals).

Depending on the mechanism of action, compound antioxidants can be divided into the following categories:

Main antioxidant
The main antioxidant is the core of the composite system, responsible for directly capturing free radicals and interrupting chain reactions. For example, phenolic antioxidants (such as BHT, BHA) are typical main antioxidants, which can quickly consume those naughty free radicals and prevent further erosion of the material.
Auxiliary antioxidants
Although auxiliary antioxidants cannot directly capture free radicals, they can slow down the oxidation process by decomposing peroxides or other harmful byproducts. Common auxiliary antioxidants include phosphites and thiodipropionate compounds.
Stabilizer
Stabilizers act similar to “Logistics Support Forces” and they can be modifiedBe good at the thermal stability or light stability of the material to reduce the impact of external factors on the material. For example, both ultraviolet absorbers and metal ion chelators fall into this category.
Other functional additives
This category includes some special purpose additives, such as lubricants, dispersants, etc. Although they do not directly participate in the antioxidant process, they can indirectly improve the overall effect of the composite antioxidant.

Advantages of Compound Antioxidants

Combined antioxidants have the following significant advantages compared to single antioxidants:

Broader scope of application: Different antioxidant components work for different oxidation stages, so composite antioxidants can provide comprehensive protection at multiple levels.
Higher efficiency: Through synergistic effects, composite antioxidants can achieve the effect of “1+1>2”, and achieve better antioxidant performance with less dosage.
Best adaptability: Complex antioxidants show stronger adaptability and durability when facing complex and changing environmental conditions.

The following table lists the main components and characteristics of several common complex antioxidants:

Ingredient Type	Typical Representation	Features
Main antioxidant	BHT, BHA	Catch free radicals directly and quickly terminate chain reactions
Auxiliary Antioxidants	Phosophites, thiodipropionate	Decompose peroxides and reduce oxidation rate
Stabilizer	Ultraviolet absorber	Provides additional light stability protection
Functional Additives	Lubricants, dispersants	Improve processing performance and indirectly enhance antioxidant effect

Challenges of extreme environments against antioxidants

Definition of Extreme Environment

The so-called extreme environment refers to those special scenarios that exceed the conventional usage conditions. These environments may include high temperatures, high pressures, strong radiation, high humidity or corrosive media, etc. For compound antioxidants, these conditions are undoubtedly severe tests time and time again.

For example, in the aerospace field, materials need to withstand extremely high temperature changes; while in deep-sea detection, antioxidants must withstand the double clamping of high pressure and low temperatures. In addition, some industrial application scenarios may also involve strong UV irradiation or chemical corrosion, which puts higher demands on the stability and durability of composite antioxidants.

Causes of failure in extreme environments

Although composite antioxidants perform well under normal conditions, in extreme environments, they may face the following problems:

Thermal decomposition
High temperatures can cause irreversible decomposition of antioxidant molecules, thus losing their activity. For example, some phenolic antioxidants gradually degrade when they exceed 200°C.
Volatility Loss
Under high temperature or vacuum conditions, low molecular weight antioxidants are prone to evaporation, resulting in loss of active ingredients.
Chemical reactions
The presence of corrosive media or strong oxidants may trigger adverse chemical reactions between antioxidants and other substances, weakening their performance.
Mechanical Stress
Under dynamic load, the microstructure inside the material may change, affecting the distribution and function of antioxidants.

Coping strategies

To overcome the above challenges, the researchers have developed a variety of improvements. For example, volatility losses are reduced by introducing large molecular weight antioxidants or coating techniques; special chemical structures that are resistant to high temperatures are used to enhance thermal stability; or optimize overall performance by adjusting the formula ratio.

Next, we will analyze the performance of composite antioxidants in several typical extreme environments in detail and explain it in combination with specific experimental data.

Research on the application of composite antioxidants in extreme environments

Performance in high temperature environment

High temperatures are one of the common and challenging environments facing composite antioxidants. In the plastics processing industry, many process steps need to be completed at temperatures above 200°C. At this time, antioxidants must not only withstand the test of high temperatures, but also ensure that they are evenly dispersed in the molten state to avoid local premature failure.

Experimental case: Aging test of polypropylene

The researchers selected a composite antioxidant containing BHT (main antioxidant), phosphite (auxiliary antioxidant) and ultraviolet absorber, applied it to polypropylene material, and performed aging test at high temperatures of 250°C. The results show that after 8 hours of continuous heating, the composite antioxidant still maintains good antioxidant properties.The tensile strength has decreased by less than 10%.

In contrast, samples using BHT alone showed obvious deterioration, and the tensile strength decreased by more than 30%. This fully demonstrates the superiority of composite antioxidants in high temperature environments.

Test conditions	Single Antioxidant (BHT)	Compound antioxidants (BHT+phosphite+UV absorber)
Initial Tensile Strength	100%	100%
Tenable strength after 8 hours	70%	92%

Performance in high humidity environment

High humidity environments may cause the material to absorb and expand, thereby accelerating the oxidation process. In this case, the composite antioxidant needs to have strong waterproofness and migration inhibition capabilities.

Experimental case: Water resistance test of rubber products

A research team has developed a composite antioxidant specifically for rubber products, which contains a special silane coupling agent as a synergistic ingredient. They added the composite antioxidant to the natural rubber and conducted a long-term test for 6 months in an environment with a relative humidity of 95%.

The results show that the rubber samples with composite antioxidants did not show obvious signs of aging throughout the test period, and their elongation of break remained above 90% of the initial value. The control group without antioxidants began to crack in the third month, and the elongation rate of final break was reduced to less than 50%.

Test time (month)	Elongation of break in the control group	Elongation of break with composite antioxidant
0	100%	100%
3	48%	95%
6	32%	91%

Performance in a strong radiation environment

Strong radiation environments usually appear in areas such as nuclear industry or space exploration. Here, composite antioxidants not only need to resist the damage of ultraviolet light, but also need to deal with the bombardment of high-energy particles.

Experimental case: polyethyleneIrradiation test

Scientists have designed a composite antioxidant containing an ultraviolet absorber and a metal ion chelating agent and applied it to high-density polyethylene (HDPE). They then exposed the samples to gamma rays with a dose rate of 10 kGy/h for irradiation for 10 days.

The test results show that the HDPE samples with composite antioxidants still maintained high mechanical properties after the irradiation, and their impact strength decreased by only 15%. The control group without antioxidants completely lost its toughness and could hardly withstand any impact force.

Test conditions	Impact intensity of the control group	Impact strength of adding composite antioxidants
Initial Value	100%	100%
After irradiation	0%	85%

Summary of domestic and foreign research results

In recent years, with the increasing widespread use of composite antioxidants in extreme environments, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted a lot of research on this. The following is a brief summary of some representative results:

Domestic research progress

Tsinghua University’s research team
Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University proposed a composite antioxidant design scheme based on nanotechnology. They effectively solved the volatility of traditional antioxidants at high temperatures by immobilizing antioxidant molecules on nanocarriers. The relevant papers were published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering (2022), which attracted widespread attention.
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new type of composite antioxidant, which is particularly suitable for the field of marine engineering. This product significantly improves the salt spray corrosion resistance of antioxidants by introducing fluorination modification technology. The research results have been successfully applied to the shell material of a deep-sea detector.

International Research Trends

DuPont, USA
DuPont has launched a high-performance composite antioxidant called “Zyncite”, designed specifically for the aerospace industry. The product uses a unique molecular cross-linking technology that enables it to remain stable at temperatures up to 350°C.
Germany BASF Group
BASF’s research team is committed to developing environmentally friendly composite antioxidants. Their new products not only have excellent antioxidant properties, but also meet the requirements of the EU REACH regulations, making important contributions to the development of green chemistry.

Conclusion and Outlook

According to the analysis in this article, it can be seen that the performance of composite antioxidants in extreme environments is impressive. Whether it is high temperature, high humidity or strong radiation, it can provide reliable protection for a wide range of materials with its excellent synergies and flexible and adjustable formulation.

However, we should also be aware that there are still many problems that need to be solved in the research and development of composite antioxidants. For example, how to further reduce production costs? How to better balance environmental protection requirements with actual performance requirements? These issues require us to continue to work hard to explore in the future.

As an old proverb says, “Unity is strength.” I believe that with the advancement of technology and the accumulation of human wisdom, compound antioxidants will surely show their infinite potential in more fields!

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