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Solvent-free solid-state-processed tapes of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene: influence of molar mass and molar mass distribution on the tensile properties

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posted on 2016-07-07, 09:38 authored by Sara Ronca, Giuseppe Forte, Hendrik J. Tjaden, Sanjay Rastogi
In normal practice, ease in processing comes at the expense of a reduction in mechanical properties. Here we show that by controlled synthesis it is possible to synthesize a wide range of linear ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylenes that can be stretched uniaxially into tapes. In these uniaxially drawn tapes, the bundles of fibers align themselves in a preferred crystal plane orientation, accounting for an extraordinarily high tensile modulus. The stretching process is accomplished in the solid state with no need for any solvent. The ease of solid-state processing provides a unique opportunity to follow the influence of the molar mass on the tensile properties. The uniaxially drawn tapes, similar to the fibers spun from solvent, confirm the empirical relationship between tensile strength and tensile modulus proposed by van Krevelen in 1976 and subsequently supported by experimental findings on solution-spun fibers by Smith and Lemstra. However, the solid-state-processed tapes do not achieve the high values of tensile strength expected from this relationship, where a modulus of 200 GPa would correspond to a tensile strength of 5 GPa. The relatively lower tensile strength of 4 GPa for the extraordinarily high modulus of 200 GPa observed in the uniaxially stretched tapes is attributed to the presence of defects, as tapes can be considered composites of fibers. The high modulus in combination with the tensile strength in tapes has the potential to provide unique physical properties in composites.

Funding

The authors thank Ir. Satyan Choudhary (Teijin Aramid, The Netherlands) for rheological experiments. This work was supported by the EPSRC (Grant EP/K034405/1).

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Materials

Published in

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH

Volume

54

Issue

30

Pages

7373 - 7381 (9)

Citation

RONCA, S. ... et al., 2015. Solvent-free solid-state-processed tapes of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene: influence of molar mass and molar mass distribution on the tensile properties. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 54 (30), pp. 7373 - 7381.

Publisher

© American Chemical Society

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.5b01469

ISSN

0888-5885

Language

  • en