Role of the entangled amorphous network in tensile deformation of semicrystalline polymers.

Being composed of crystalline lamellae and entangled amorphous polymeric chains in between, semicrystalline polymers always show a complicated deformation behavior under tensile deformation. In recent years, the process of tensile deformation was found to exhibit several regimes: intralamellar slipping of crystalline blocks occurs at small deformation whereas a stress-induced crystalline block disaggregation-recrystallization process occurs at a strain larger than the yield strain. The strain at this transition point is related to the interplay between the amorphous entanglement density and the stability of crystal blocks. We report experimental evidence from true stress-strain experiments that support this argument. It is emphasized that tie molecules, which connect adjacent lamellae, are of lesser importance with respect to the deformational behavior.