Morphology and mechanical properties in semicrystalline polymers
ABSTRACT The application of composite theories to relationships between mechanical properties and structure in semicrystalline polymers is considered. The approach is illustrated by recent results from the author's laboratories for three classes of polymer morphology, namely spherulitic (polyethylene), row nucleated (cis-polyisoprene) and fibrillar (solid-state polymerized polyoxy-methylene). The success of the approach emphasizes that semicrystalline polymers can nearly always be represented morphologically as consisting of separate and mechanically distinct crystalline and amorphous phases.