Abstract
The essential work of fracture (EWF) method has been used to study the relationship between molecular structure and thin film fracture toughness for three ductile polyesters at ambient temperature. The fracture toughness of PPT is of particular interest. Successful fracture characterisation of thin film polyesters has been achieved by the EWF method using double edge notched tension (DENT) specimens. The specific essential work of fracture, w e, for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene terephthalate (PPT) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) films is found to be 35.54±2.56, 41.03±3.23 and 31.34±8.60 kJ m–2, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) has been employed to investigate the crystallinity of the polymers concerned and the effect of this on their EWF values.
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