Abstract

Thin, single crystal-like textured films of HDPE were uniaxiaIly elongated at 56, 93 and 129°C along the chain direction. In all cases, the initial shish-kebab morphology was transformed via crystal shear, chain slip and “defect” generation within the crystalline phase. Shear between shish-kebabs was observed at all temperatures and was identified by a rotation of lamellar normals away from the elongation direction. Craze-like structures developed at all temperatures as well, but only propagated laterally at temperatures above the alpha transition temperature of polyethylene. The evolution of the crystalline phase during deformation was imaged in detail by darkfield TEM. The generation of long (3μm), thin crystalline fibrils (“protofibrils”) of about 7 nm diameter indicated that the material had undergone strain induced crystallization. Lateral connections between the original kebabs were retained during drawing in many cases, and constituted tie fibrils between adjacent “craze” fibrils. The processes which occurred in thin films at temperatures above the alpha transition and which gave rise to long crystals provided insight into the generation of a continuous crystalline phase in bulk polyethylene.

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