Thermal expansion and Young's modulus of uniaxially drawn poly(tetrafluoroethylene) in the temperature range from 100 to 400 K

PTFE specimens with a crystallinity of 42 % were uniaxially stretched at 473 K resulting in draw ratios between 1. and 4. The degree of molecular orientation was obtained by X-ray wide angle and birefringence measurements. The thermal expansion coefficients and the Young's moduli both parallel and perpendicular to the draw direction were measured in the temperature range from 100 to 400 K. The thermal expansion behaviour turned out to be dependent upon the molecular orientation in a sensitive manner and could be explained by a simple model of structure changes caused by the deformation processes.