X-ray diffraction studies of poly(aryl ether ether ketone) fibers with different degrees of crystallinity and orientation

Abstract

Structural studies of series of ‘as spun’ and drawn PEEK fibers have been carried out using X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy techniques. The analysis of results suggest that fibers produced at a constant draw ratio with increasing draw temperatures show enhanced orientation and crystalline behaviour. The resolved equatorial and meridional traces provide additional structural parameters in terms of crystallinity, crystallite size, and crystallite thickness. It is concluded that drawing at a temperature belowT g (i.e., 144 °C) results in poorly oriented non-crystalline materials, whereas drawing aboveT g results in highly oriented semicrystalline materials. Additional drawing proved to increase the overall orientation with slight improvements in lateral order of the chain molecules. Quantitative analysis revealed that the crystallite size increases with increasing drawing temperature. The results also revealed the increased crystallite size upon additional drawing. Crystalline orientation parameter, 〈P 2〉c, suggests almost perfect orientation. In all cases, the amorphous orientation is found to be lower than the overall orientation parameter obtained from the optical birefringence. As a result of additional drawing, crystalline orientation was found to increase slightly but the increase in the orientation of non-crystalline material was found to be substantial. An average crystalline density was determined from the orthorhombic unit cell dimensions. It was found to vary as a result of processing conditions. It was also found that the value of the maximum birefringence shows heavy dependence on the chain conformation.