Glassy cohesive fracture energies

Benkoski et al. have utilized diblock copolymers, composed of a glassy block and a semicrystalline block, to reinforce an interface [9]. Their studies indicate that the penetration of the chains from the diblock into the homopolymer allow a transfer of stress across the interface that is dependent on parameters related to the crystalline chains in the diblock. By increasing the length of the crystalline portion of the diblock, values of the fracture energy increased from 1 to 700 J mT [9]. As with the experiments of Bidaux et al, the largest values of the fracture energy were attributed to plastic deformation and cohesive failure within the semicrystalline polymer. 

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