Microstructural orientation of isotactic polypropylene studied by computerized scanning eletron microscopy image analysis

• Main Authors: Machado Giovanna, Luca Maria Augusta de, Samios Dimitrios
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol) 2001-01-01
• Series: Materials Research
• Subjects: microscopy; polypropylene; orientation
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14392001000200011

We evaluate the orientation of microstructural elements of isotatic polypropylene (i-PP) before and after deformation using computerized "Quantikov" software analysis of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images. We observed that before deformation through uniaxial compression, the polymeric material doesn?t exhibit any significant orientation. After deformation at 1349 MPa the material clearly showed preferential orientation that was attested by the orientation axis seen between two petals of the rose of the number of intercepts. This effect was more pronounced after deformation at 2699 MPa.