Transition from shish-kebab to fibrillar crystals during ultra-high hot stretching of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers: In situ small and wide angle X-ray scattering studies

• DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2015.10.006
• Publication Date: 2015-10-19T22:48:03Z
• Authors: Yu Tian; Caizhen Zhu; Jinghua Gong; Jinghong Ma; Jian Xu
• Keywords: Small-angle X-ray scattering; Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene; Wide-angle X-ray scattering

Abstract The ultra-high hot stretching was conducted on four-times pre-stretched ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers to the ratio of about 508% to achieve the total ultra-high stretching ratio of about 2000%. In situ small and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) measurements using synchrotron radiation and Raman spectroscopy were applied to study the structural evolutions of ultra-high stretched fibers. SAXS images revealed the transition from shish-kebab to fibrillar crystals, which is believed to involve with the increasing trans-configuration ratio of C–C backbone. WAXS results demonstrate the further stretching could still be applied to the fibers to acquire the complete extended-chain crystals.