High impact polystyrene microstructure

An analogous microstructure can be produced in amorphous polymers by crazing them. Figure 2b shows the similarity of the craze structure to the crystalline morphology. We have reported that extensively crazed high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) exhibits hard elastic behavior, as the loading cycle illustrated in Figure 3 shows [10,11]. Hence, hard elastic behavior is associated with a bulk-microfibril composite structure... 

---