SAXS experiments on voids in gel-spun polyethylene fibres

Abstract

The morphology and properties of extracted gel-spun polyethylene fibres depend on the spinning conditions. The main structures in the extracted fibre are shish-kebabs and lamellae. Equatorial small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments show that the former structure is very porous due to the presence of lamellar overgrowth preventing a close package of the backbone fibrils, whereas the latter structure is relatively dense. After hot-drawing, due to melting/recrystallization, both structures are transformed on a 100 nm scale into a dense structure consisting of shish-kebabs or fibrils containing a void volume fraction of about 1%, as revealed by the scattering power of equatorial SAXS experiments. Moreover, a slight decrease of the equatorial intensity especially at the smallest angles after treating the hot-drawn fibres with paraffin oil, points to a small contribution of multiple scattering to the equatorial scattering. This implies the presence of a superstructure of not too closely packed macrofibrils. SAXS measurements of strained ultra-high-strength polyethylene fibres show that no or very little void formation is involved in the fracture mechanism. Most probably this is due to the (partly) fibrillar structure.