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Download fileAdvanced Vibrational Microspectroscopic Study of Conformational Changes within a Craze in Poly(ethylene terephthalate)
journal contribution
posted on 2015-02-24, 00:00 authored by Gonzalo Santoro, Isabel M. Ochando, Gary EllisCrazes constitute one of the most
common failure mechanisms in
polymers. They act as fracture precursors, severely degrading the
mechanical properties of the material. Thus, a deep understanding
of the chain rearrangement occurring inside crazes is of utmost fundamental
and practical importance. We have employed synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy
(SIRMS) and Raman microspectroscopy to investigate the conformational
changes inside micron-sized crazes in poly(ethylene terephthalate),
PET. A promotion of the full-extended chain conformational structure
at the expense of mainly the trans amorphous mesomorphic
phase along with an increase in crystallinity of around 4% has been
found. These results differ from what we observed across the deformation
neck during PET cold drawing, where no promotion of the all-trans crystalline conformation occurred for slow
drawing speeds at temperatures well below the glass transition. Our
results show the tremendous capabilities of advanced vibrational microspectroscopy
techniques to investigate microscale phenomena in polymer science.
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Keywords
chain rearrangementpolymer scienceresults showcrazeAdvanced Vibrational Microspectroscopic Studymicroscale phenomenafracture precursorsSIRMSfailure mechanismsvibrational microspectroscopy techniquesglass transitionmesomorphic phaseConformational Changesdeformation neckRaman microspectroscopyterephthalate