Elastic deformation polymer crystals

In this chapter studies of physical effects within the elastic deformation range were extended into stress regions where there are substantial contributions to physical processes from both elastic and inelastic deformation. Those studies include the piezoelectric responses of the piezoelectric crystals, quartz and lithium niobate, similar work on the piezoelectric polymer PVDF, ferroelectric solids, and ferromagnetic alloys which exhibit second- and first-order phase transformations. The resistance of metals has been investigated along with the distinctive shock phenomenon, shock-induced polarization. 

An example of a relevant optical property is the birefringence of a deformed polymer network [246]. This strain-induced birefringence can be used to characterize segmental orientation, both Gaussian and non-Gaussian elasticity, and to obtain new insights into the network chain orientation (see Chapter 8) necessary for strain-induced crystallization [4,16,85,247,248]. 

In summarizing, it can be concluded that the microhardness of elongational flow injection moulded PE is influenced by a local double mechanical contribution (a) a plastic deformation of crystal lamellae under the indenter, and (b) an elastic recovery of shish-fibrils parallel to the injection direction after load removal. Further, the Shish-crystals are preferentially formed when high orientation occurs, i.e. at zones near the centre of the mould and at an optimum processing temperature Tp around 145-150 °C. Below this temperature overall orientation decreases due to a wall-sliding mechanism of the mbber-like molten polymer. 

SMP based on miscible blends of semicrystalline polymer/amorphous polymer was reported by the Mather research group, which included semicrystalline polymer/amorphous polymer such as polylactide (PLA)/poly vinylacetate (PVAc) blend [21,22], poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/PVAc blend [23], and PVDF/polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) blend [23]. These polymer blends are completely miscible at all compositions with a single, sharp glass transition temperature, while crystallization of PLA or PVDF is partially maintained and the degree of crystallinity, which controls the rubbery stiffness and the elasticity, can be tuned by the blend ratios. Tg of the blends are the critical temperatures for triggering shape recovery, while the crystalline phase of the semicrystalline PLA and PVDF serves well as a physical cross-linking site for elastic deformation above Tg, while still below T ,. 

Gibson, A.G. at al. (1978). Dynamic mechanical behaviour and longitudinal crystal thickness measurements on ultra-high modulus linear polyethylene a quantitative model for the elastic modulus. Polymer, Vol. 19 (1978), pp. 683-693 Hong, K. et al. (2004). A model treating tensile deformation of semi-crystalline polymers Quasi-static stress-strain relationship and viscous stress determined for a sample of... 

The need for a fully statistical mechanical theory of polymers in bulk is more than just a question of rigor or elegance. We mentioned earlier the questions cancerning the relation between average structural and elastic properties of polymer networks. More important, the present statistical theories of bulk polymer elasticity fail to account for interactions between different chains in the network. Therefore they cannot be expected to provide a proper molecular basis for an understanding of elasticity at large deformations, of crystallization upon stretching, etc. A description of these phenc mena requires a fully statistical mechanical description of the polymer network. In such a description, the observable properties of the system are formally presented in terms of the properties of the constituent polymers and their mutual interactions. Thus all macroscopic-properties are expressed in terms of the microscopic properties of the individual polymer chains. 

Scientists have investigated uniaxial-biaxial phase transition for nematic liquid crystal polymers and have tried to describe it through the order parameters and also by considering the terms that account for the energy of elastic deformation and the... 

Again, in crystalline and semi-crystalline polymers there are four regions of different stress-strain behavior. As before, in region 1 the polymer experiences elastic deformation and recoverable strain. In this region, the spatial arrangement of the crystal lamellae within spherulites becomes deformed as much as the reversible molecular conformation change of the inter-crystalline tie molecules will permit. 

The high axial elastic modulus of polyethylene and polyamide 6 is due to the fact that these polymers have a preferred conformation that is fully extended, i.e. all-trans. The elastic deformation is caused by the deformation of bond angles and by bond stretching, both showing high elastic constants. Isotactic polypropylene and polyoxymethylene crystallize in helical conformations and therefore exhibit a maximum stiffness which is only 20% of the maximum stiffness of the all-trans polymers. The elastic deformation of a helical chain involves, in addition to the deformation of bond angles and bond stretching, deformation by torsion about the G bonds. The latter... 

---