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Ultradrawing behavior of gel films of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene and low molecular weight polyethylene blends at varying drawing conditions
Author(s) -
Yeh Jentaut,
Chang Shengshan
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.11051
Subject(s) - materials science , polyethylene , composite material , birefringence , ultimate tensile strength , deformation (meteorology) , optics , physics
A systematic study of the influence of the drawing temperature and rate on the ultradrawing properties of film samples prepared from gel solutions of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene and low molecular weight polyethylene blends is reported. At a fixed drawing rate, the achievable draw ratios reached a maximum value when each film specimen was drawn at a temperature near its optimum temperature ( T op ). It is interesting to note that the T op values of each film sample increased consistently with the drawing rate. The achievable draw ratio of each film sample drawn at a constant rate and a temperature near T op is referred to as the D raop , which reached another maximum value as the drawing rates approached an optimum value. Dynamic mechanical analysis of the film sample exhibited an extraordinary high transition peaked at temperature near 95°C, which is again very close to the T op value found for the film sample drawn at a relatively low rate. On the other hand, the birefringence values and tensile strengths of the film specimen were found to improve significantly with the draw ratios, although the improvement of these properties reduced significantly at high draw ratios. Moreover, both the drawing temperature and rate showed beneficial influence on the birefringence, and tensile strengths of the drawn film specimens. Possible mechanisms accounting for these interesting deformation properties are suggested.