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Surface roughness and light transmission of biaxially oriented polypropylene films
Author(s) -
Lin Y.J.,
Dias P.,
Chum S.,
Hiltner A.,
Baer E.
Publication year - 2007
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.20850
Subject(s) - materials science , polypropylene , composite material , surface finish , surface roughness , transparency (behavior) , law , political science
The effect of thermal history on the transparency of biaxially‐oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films was investigated. Compression molded sheets prepared with different cooling rates were biaxially oriented at several temperatures. Correlations were sought between the light transmission measured at 633 nm and the surface roughness as characterized by atomic force microscopy. It was determined that surface roughness on the 100‐μm size scale was responsible for a loss in transparency. Surface roughness on the submicron size scale did not affect the transparency. The clearest films were obtained from compression molded sheets with the most homogeneous texture and by orienting at the lowest temperature. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:1658–1665, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers