STRUCTURAL CHANGES OF CRYSTALLINE FINE TEXTURES DURING AMINOLYSIS OF POLY (ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE) FILMS

Abstract

A study was made of the morphological changes of crystalline fine texture that occurred when poly (ethylene terephthalate) films were degraded in aqueous ethylamine at room temperature. Earlier works proposed that photomicrographies applied to the investigation of the etching patterns were sensitive technique to detect the differences of orientation anisotropy and amounts of crystallinity for PET films which had different mechanical and thermal history. In the present work X-ray measurements were used to deduce the information on the occurring of the various etching patterns based on the structural changes of the crystallite orientation, the size of crystallite, the long period spacing and the distributions of the size of laminar domains by the degradation of films.