Environmental stress crazing in polystyrene: the roles of chain length and architecture in craze initiation

摘要

This work aims to assist in optimising the solid state performance of polymer products, by developing an understanding of the molecular factors involved in initiation of environmental stress crazing. Experiments measuring craze initiation stress in miniature rectangular beam samples saturated in diethylene glycol were performed on 26 isotropic atactic polystyrenes with molar mass from 66 kD to 1148 kD, including a wide range of monodisperse linear and branched materials. Results indicate that both solid-state molecular disentanglement and chain scission play roles, depending on the chain architecture and length of the polymer. A simple rule is suggested for predicting ESC craze initiation in polydisperse polymers.