The use of synchrotron radiation for study of structural changes in polymers during phase transition and deformation

An experimental method using monochromatized synchrotron radiation for a wide-angle x-ray scattering study of polymers during phase transition and deformation is described. Results obtained on low-density and high-density polyethylenes and on polypropylene are given. Melting processes could be studied conveniently by making exposures during a temperature scan; a few seconds were found sufficient to obtain a diffraction spectrum. This way relatively fast crystallization processes and the structural change accompanying stress relaxation could be followed easily. The crystalline-amorphous ratio was found to decrease continuously much below the melting temperature measured dilatometrically and by DSC, implying that in the α_c-relaxation transition region of polyethylene and polypropylene a structural change takes place. At the initial state of crystallization the 040 reflection in polypropylene was found to be stronger than the 110 one, while after crystallization has been completed this ratio was inverted. Equatorial spectra made after rapid uniaxial stretching of polypropylene sheet were found to exhibit a slight time dependence demonstrating that orientation went on after stretching had been stopped.