Session D40 - Poster Session I.
POSTER session, Monday afternoon, March 12
Exhibit Hall, Washington State Convention Center
In this study, the morphological evolution of semi-crystalline poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) under large scale simple shear is investigated. The equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) process is used to induce the simple shear deformation. The deformation of semi-crystalline PET at different length scales is studied. At the spherulite scale, optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used. Lamellar scale information is obtained by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Molecular chains in the crystalline lamellae are obtained by wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), and the molecular chains in the amorphous phase are studied by annealing the sample at temperatures above glass transition but below melting point. Structural characterization shows that PET spherulites are highly elongated into macrofibrils after ECAE. Within the macrofibrils, a "V-type" of crystalline lamellar orientation is induced. Molecular chains in the crystalline lamellae are tilted to the lamellar surface, whereas the molecular chains in the amorphous phase are highly stretched.