Characteristics and Applications of Polymers - Factors That influence the Mechanical Properties of Semicrystalline Polymers

9 important questions on Characteristics and Applications of Polymers - Factors That influence the Mechanical Properties of Semicrystalline Polymers

What processing/structural factors influence the mechanical behavior of polymers?

Next to temperature and strain rate, also molecular weight, degree of crystallinity, predeformation (drawing), and heat treatment.

For some semicrystalline polymers the molecular weight seems to influence the tensile strength TS, how is this computed?


Where:
TSinf is the tensile strength at infinite molecular weight
A is a constant
Mn is the number-average molecular weight.

What does the tensile modulus do when the crystallinity of a semicrystalline material increases and why?

With increasing crystallinity the amount of secondary intermolecular bonds increase and so does the tensile modulus.
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How does the crystallinity influence the polymer properties?

Next to increased tensile modulus with increasing crystallinity, a material will become stronger but also more brittle.

What is one of the most important commercial techniques to enhance polymer properties?

To improve mechanical strength and tensile modulus drawing is used. This permanently deforms the polymer in tension.

What are properties of drawn semicrystalline materials?

The material will strengthen and stiffen, and will become highly anisotropic.

How will the tensile strength of a drawn material develop?

In the direction of the orientation it will enhance by a factor 2 to 5, but in the direction perpendicular to the alignment it will be reduce by one-third to one-half.

What is an other term for the heat-treating of semicrystalline polymers?

Annealing

What happens when you increase the annealing temperature?

1. An increase in tensile modulus
2. An increase in yield strength
3. A reduction in ductility
Which are opposite to what happens with metals.

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