Abstract
AbstractIn a semicrystalline polymer chain, if n is the total number of backbone units and a is the number of nonlattice backbone units, then the per cent crystallinity is (n – a)/n. By an empirical approach it is found that if a is set equal to ca. 40 for branched polyethylenes and n is determined from a melting point‐fold length relationship that the calculated values of per cent crystallinity are in good agreement with experiment. It is also shown that 100/(n – a) is equivalent to the total number of branches per 100 methylenes for branched polyethylene. A sinusoidal random coil is postulated for the melt state in order to rationalize why chain folding with adjacent reentry should occur if as many as 40 methylenes per fold are noncrystalline.
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