The nanostructuring of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene in thermal and mechanical fields as revealed by DSC
Abstract The ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene reactor powders are widely used for the actively developing solvent-free method for producing high-strength high-modulus PE filaments, which includes the compaction and sintering of a powder followed by orientational hardening. To find an appropriate regime of the technological process, it is important to know how the nanostructure changes when transforming from a powder to a precursor for hardening. Nanocrystalline lamellae are characteristics of the powder structure. For the first time, the DSC technique was used to follow changes in the thickness distribution of lamellae in ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene reactor powder on its way to a precursor for orientation hardening. It was found that the percentage of thick (>15 nm) and thin (10 nm) lamellae in compacted samples and those sintered at temperatures lower than the melting temperature of PE (140°C) remains nearly the same. However, significant changes in the content of lamellae of different thicknesses were observed in the samples sintered at 145°C with subsequent cooling under different conditions. The influence of the lamellae thickness distribution in precursors on the mechanical characteristics of oriented filaments was discussed.