Synergistic effect of electron and proton on the mechanical properties of polyimide films

Polyimide film can be used in spacecraft thermal control multilayer and large-scale deployment structure, and its mechanical properties will be degraded by the influence of space radiation environment such as electron and proton. In this paper, the mechanical properties of polyimide film under the synergistic effect of electron and proton was studied using the space integrated irradiation test facility in Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering. It is found that the combined irradiation of electron and proton damages the polyimide film more than the single environment of electron or proton. The synergistic effect of electron and proton causes the exponentially decrease of rupture elongation and the tensile strength of the polyimide film with. With the increase of the electron and proton irradiation fluence until its properties reaches a steady state.