Unexpected Shish-Kebab Structure in a Sheared Polyethylene Melt

Benjamin S. Hsiao, Ling Yang, Rajesh H. Somani, Carlos A. Avila-Orta, and Lei Zhu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 117802 – Published 22 March 2005

Abstract

Scanning electron micrographs of a solvent-extracted sheared polyethylene (PE) blend revealed, for the first time, an unexpected shish-kebab structure with multiple shish. The blend contained 2 wt % of crystallizing ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and 98 wt % of noncrystallizing PE matrix. The formation of multiple shish was attributed to the coil-stretch transition occurring in sections of UHMWPE chains. Synchrotron x-ray data provided clear evidence of the hypothesis that multiple shish originate from stretched chain sections and kebabs originate from coiled chain sections, following a diffusion-controlled crystallization process.

Received 2 August 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.117802

Authors & Affiliations

Benjamin S. Hsiao^1,*, Ling Yang¹, Rajesh H. Somani¹, Carlos A. Avila-Orta¹, and Lei Zhu²

¹Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3400, USA
²Institute of Materials Science and Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3136, USA

^*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Electronic address: bhsiao@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

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Vol. 94, Iss. 11 — 25 March 2005

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