pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S15 - Morphology and Structure Development (Honoring Symposia - J-M. Haudin)
Oral Presentation
 
 

Influence of a dispersed elastomeric phase on the orientation of hot-drawn Poly(ethylene Terephthalate)

Bourg Violette (1)*, Saffar Amir (1), Ajji Abdellah (1)

(1) CREPEC, Chemical Engineering Department, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal - Québec - Canada

For years, it is well-established that properties of polymeric materials strongly depend on their orientation state. However, if orientation causes a favorable anisotropy in the drawing direction, it also results in drawbacks such as a reduction of the same properties in other direction(s) that is generally accompanied by a reduction of the elongation at break. To overcome this loss of properties, it is possible to disperse an elastomeric phase that will either be stretched or teared and debonded upon stretching and therefore alter the state of stress in the brittle matrix. Scarce studies investigated the influence of such a dispersed phase on the orientation of the matrix. Chapeleau et al. studied the effect of different drawing techniques on the orientation of a PET modified with a metallocene ethylene-octene polyethylene (m-PE) copolymer, and the effect of grafting with glucidyl methacrylate as a compatibilizer (GMA). By following the evolution of the orientation function of the 1340 cm-1 infrared band with the draw ratio, they showed that the trans conformers orient less for the modified PET than for neat PET and even less for the grafted modified one. In our work, PET is modified with PE and/or Ethylene-Polypropylene Diene terpolymer (EPDM), grafted with GMA, and drawn from the amorphous state at 90°C with an increasing draw ratio. Due to the higher thicknesses that are used, saturation issue prevent from determining the orientation function of PET from the band at 1340 cm-1. Therefore, a combination of Infrared Linear Dichroism (IRLD) using a Near Infrared (NIR) band (overtone or combination of the fundamental vibration of the mid-infrared region) and Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction (WAXD) technique is used to determine the orientation of the crystalline and amorphous phase separately. An investigation of the morphology in terms of crystallinity and structure is also performed with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).