Correlation between crystallization and mechanical stress revealed by chain scission of segmented amide copolymer

Antoine Bardin (1) , Pierre-Yves Le Gac (2) , Pierre-Antoine Albouy (3) , Hervé Bindi (4) , Bruno Fayolle (1)

1 PIMM - Laboratoire Procédés et Ingénierie en Mécanique et Matériaux
2 IFREMER - Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer
3 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
4 THALES [France]

By tuning hydrolysis duration of a segmented ether-amide copolymer (PEBA), a range of specimens presenting various macromolecular structures has been produced. Knowing that scissions occur predominantly at the bond between hard and soft blocks, for a given hard phase structure we study the impact of phase interconnection changes on strain-induced crystallization (SIC) occurring during tensile loading. The consequences of chain scissions on the structural reorganization involving SIC measured with in situ X-ray diffraction is considered here for the first time. A close correlation between stress and crystallinity induced under strain is highlighted whatever the chain scission number, i.e. the number of phase interconnections. As a result, the stress decrease observed at a given elongation can be interpreted as a consequence of a SIC weakening with the chain scission process.

Mots clés: Thermoplastic elastomer; Poly(ether-block-amide); PEBA; Chain scission; Strain-induced crystallization

Domaines: Matériaux; Polymères

Antoine Bardin, Pierre-Yves Le Gac, Pierre-Antoine Albouy, Hervé Bindi, Bruno Fayolle. Correlation between crystallization and mechanical stress revealed by chain scission of segmented amide copolymer. Polymer, 2022, 247, pp.124757. ⟨10.1016/j.polymer.2022.124757⟩. ⟨hal-03702039⟩