Abstract: The radiation effect of poly(vinyl alcohol) films used as a kind of gas-barrier material for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets was studied under the different conditions of β-ray from tritium decay. The changes of physical and chemical properties of the irradiated material samples were analyzed by FTIR, XRD and AFM. The tritium hydrogen isotopic exchange reaction of the irradiated samples mainly occurs at C—H bond and the IR absorption peak of C—T bond obviously increases with the irradiation dose. For strong hydrogen bonding interaction, the isotopic exchange reaction doesn’t occur at O—H bond. The crystallinity degree and surface morphology of the irradiated samples were changed. The tensile properties of irradiated poly(vinyl alcohol) films were measured by universal material testing machine. The results show that the change trend of mechanical properties is in accordance with the microstructures of the irradiated samples.