Abstract: | In uniaxially oriented polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate films conformational transitions were studied by the absorption IR-spectroscopy method during deformation of the specimens carried to rupture in a wide range of temperatures and with different loading methods. It is shown that upon elongation of the polymers the concentration of trans isomers increases and that of gauche isomers decreases. A linear unique relation is obtained between the number of rotational isomers and magnitude of deformation in the amorphous parts of the investigated polymers. It is hypothesized that the conformational transitions determine the magnitude of deformation of amorphous-crystal-line polymers.A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 6, pp. 1077–1080, November–December, 1975. |