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13.6: Summary

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    7869
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    Polymers contain ordered crystalline regions; chains fold to produce lamellae. When lamellae are nucleated from a small area, round agglomerates known as spherulites are formed. In a fully crystalline material they impinge on each other and appear polygonal under the microscope. In this TLP, polymer crystallisation and spherulite formation have been discussed. Micrographs of spherulites showing the distinctive Maltese cross were presented and their appearance was explained in terms of birefringence.

    From the section of the TLP dealing with mechanical testing, you should have gained an understanding of the mechanism of necking and cold drawing by which a semicrystalline polymer deforms under a uniaxial tensile stress above its glass transition temperature. Furthermore, Considère's construction, which is a simple way of determining whether a polymer sample will neck and cold draw, was derived. The stress-strain curves produced by such experiments should now be familiar, for varying strain rates and relative temperatures.

    Going further

    Books

    • Plastics Microstructure and Engineering Applications, N J Mills, Edward Arnold, 1993 (2nd edition).
    • Fundamentals of Polymer Science - An Introductory Text, Paul C Painter and Michael M Coleman, Technomic, 1994.
    • Introduction to Polymers, R J Young and P A Lovell, Chapman & Hall, 1991 (2nd edition).

    Websites

    • The Macrogalleria
      Describing itself as "a cyberwonderland of polymer fun", this multi-award-winning site contains a wealth of information about polymers, including a section on Differential scanning calorimetry.

    This page titled 13.6: Summary is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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