Comparison of oxidation resistance of UHMWPE and POM in H2O2 solution from ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics simulations.

The oxidation mechanism of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and polyoxymethylene (POM) in hydrogen peroxide solution was investigated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations via reactive force field (ReaxFF) method. MD results from ReaxFF suggested that UHMWPE provided better antioxidation activity at high temperature (>373 K) than its POM counterpart in the same concentration of hydrogen peroxide solution. Furthermore, POM was relatively more susceptible to erosion and swelling because of the infiltration of H2O2 solution.