Deformation and stress-induced transformation of polybutene-1

The deformation at room temperature of thick (ca. 2 mm) and thin (ca. 1000 Å) films of polybutene was characterized by electron microscopy and electron x-ray diffraction. The thin films, as studied, draw by micronecking whereas the thick films draw uniformly. In both types of samples the details of the deformation process varied with the orientation of the lamellae in the original spherulitic structure; in all cases, however, the lamellae broke up into “mosaic” blocks prior to uniform fibril formation. The tetragonal-hexagonal phase transformation accompanying the deformation of fresh polybutene films generally appeared to occur within the blocks except in those situations in which the lamellae are being drawn perpendicular to the molecular axes, that is, parallel to the lamella surface; in the latter case the tetragonal form can be at least partially retained until unfolding and fibril formation occurs.