Deformation mechanism in swollen radiation-grafted polyethylene

Stress-strain behaviour of anisotropic polyethylene (PE) film radiation-grafted with styrene was studied with the samples immersed in xylene. The glassy polystyrene (PS) phase (1) is softened by swelling. Whereas the tensile modulus of dry graft increases somewhat with increasing PS content, for the swollen graft it decreases sharply. However the yield stress and the elongation at break remain fairly large. For highly grafted films (PS/PE > 1) deformation is almost fully reversible and proceeds without necking up to draw ratios as high as 5:1. With the aid of additional X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy results the deformation mechanism is interpreted in terms of the known morphology of the copolymer.