The relation of the molecular weight, the number of branches, the blending ratio, the crystallization conditions and the crystallinity to the crystallite sizes of the various types of polyethylenes were studied. The crystallite sizes normal to the (110) and the (200) planes were measured by the X-ray diffraction method, and the crystallite sizes along the c-axis were obtained by the melting temperature method. The crystallite sizes along the c-axis increase with increases of the molecular weight and crystallinity of linear polyethylenes, and the crystallite sizes normal to the (110) and the (200) planes slightly decrease with increases of the molecular weight, and increase with increases of the crystallinity. It appears that the dependency of the molecular weight on the crystallite sizes is less than that of the number of branches in polyethylenes.
The crystallite sizes decrease with increases of the number of branches, and the effect of the cooling rate on the crystallite sizes decreases with increases of the number of branches in polyethylenes. It is shown for the blends of linear and branched polyethylenes by the measurements of the changes in the crystallinity and the crystallite sizes along the c-axis, that in the blends, there are both types of crystallites consist of linear and branched polymers respectively. The excellent linear relations were found between the crystallite sizes along the c-axis and the blendirg ratios or crystallinity, and the cubic relations between the crystallite sizes normal to the (110) or the (200) planes and the blending ratios or crystallinity in the blended polyethylenes, were also observed. The branched polyethylene can be considered as a plasticizer, facilitating the crystallization of the linear polyethylene above the crystallization temperature of branched polyethylene in the blends.
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