Xylene etching with

Morphology of three polypropylene (PP)/polyethylene (PE) blends with different viscosity ratios. The viscosity ratio is 3.9 for PP/PE-1 (a), 1 for PP/PE-2 (b), and 0.5 for PP/PE-3 (c). The surface of the blend was etched with xylene to improve morphology observation. (Reproduced from Hong, J. S., K. H. Ahn, and S. J. Lee. 2005a. Strain hardening behavior of polymer blends with fibril morphology. Rheologica Acta 45 202-208, with permission.)... 

Fig. 5.24 Transmission electron micrograph of crystals (etched with ethanol) formed by a PS-PEO diblock (Mn = 34.1 kg mol-1, 66wt% PS) crystallized from solution in xylene (Lotz et al. 1996).

Fig. 28 Scanning electron micrograph of high density polyethylene first isothermally crystallised at 128 °C and then rapidly cooled to room temperature. The sample was etched with hot p-xylene to remove the material crystallising in the cooling phase. Scale bar represents 20 pm. From Gedde and Jansson [154] with permission from Elsevier, UK...

Figure 13.6a shows the SEM of cryofractured and etched (with THF and xylene to remove the ABS and PP phases respectively) surfaces of ternary blends with OTPB modified MWNTs. Figure 13.6b shows the SEM of cryofractured and etched (with THF and hot xylene to remove ABS, PP and HDPE phases respectively) surfaces of quaternary blends. In both these SEM images one can clearly observe the remaining continuous PA6 phase. Further, the strands were observed to be intact even after extracting ABS and PP (in case of ternary blends) and ABS, PP and HDPE (in case of quaternary blends). This clearly manifests the co-continuous nature of the blends. The morphologies of the multicomponent blends with OTPB modified MWNTs and the solution experiments are discussed in detail in ref. 18. Both the ternary and the quaternary... 

A second, more sophisticated type of devices was fabricated in the following way. First a temporary gold layer, which closed the nonconducting gap between the two chromium electrodes, was evaporated. Subsequently a voided double-gyroid-structured template was prepared on this continuously metal-coated substrate and refilled with PPy. Then the redundant template was dissolved with xylene. Finally the superficial gold layer was etched with a wet gold etchant, which reestablished the gap between the chromium electrodes. 

Dispersion of PS-fibrils in as-spun PP/PS 92/8 composite fibers, SEM photomicrographs in longitudinal section. PS phase is etched out with xylene at room temperature. (From Q. Xing, M. Zhu, Y. Wang, Y. Chen, Y. Zhang, J. Pionteck, and H. J. Adler, Polymer 46(14), 5406-5416,2005. With permission.)... 

Peck and Kaye [240] immersed cellulose acetate specimens in acetone, at —50°C, and then flooded the surfaces with cold absolute alcohol, followed by replication which showed the skin, orientation, voids and pigment. Reding and Walter [21] etched PE with hot carbon tetrachloride (high density PE), benzene (low density PE) or toluene, which removed the amorphous material. Bailey [241] used a rapid xylene etch to reveal spher-ulites in PE and PP, while Li and Kargin [242] etched with benzene. A method was developed for obtaining PE for TEM. Melt crystallized PE, backed with carbon and gelatin, was exposed to xylene and dissolved to a thin layer and examined directly by TEM [243, 244]. 

There are two general categories of etching chemical attack or bombardment with charged particles as in plasma and ion beam etching. Chemical attack can be further divided into several categories, including dissolution, which implies the removal of whole molecules of a material as it dissolves acids and other chemicals. Solvent extraction with xylene was used for the study of PE [294] however, dissolution is not recommended due to the artifacts that... 

Figure I. Effect of the etching time in Figure 2. Xylene oxidation to CO2 with...

Figure 13.10. SEM micrographs of the o-CB/PET/PE composite with selectively locating CB in the surfaces of the microfibrils. The PE matrix was etched away by hot xylene for clear observation. The volume ratio of PET and PE is 1 3.2, the CB loading is 3.5 vol% and 7.2 vol% for 7(a) and 7(b), respectively [22]...

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