Plastic deformation of polypropylene. V. Annealing of drawn polypropylene

Isotactic polypropylene samples drawn at 20 and 100°C to a draw ratio 6 and 10 were annealed with free and fixed ends between 40 and 155°C for periods of time between 1 and 10 3 min. All the annealing effects proceeded farther with unclamped samples free to shrink than with clamped samples. The disorientation of crystal lattice and the shrinkage are extremely fast reaching saturation values characteristic for the temperature of annealing. At higher annealing temperature, one could observe merely the saturation values with the whole transition being completed in less than 1 min. The long period growth, the increase in density, and the intensity of small‐angle X‐ray scattering are linear functions of the logarithm of annealing time and hence persist with gradually decreasing rate long after the completion of disorientation and shrinkage. The observed effects can be well explained on the basis of the two‐stage model of plastic deformation of crystalline polymers which assumes the formation of strong well‐aligned microfibrils connected by interfibrillar tie molecules.