STUDY OF CRYSTALLINITY CHANGES OF HIGH-DE NSITY POLYETHYLENE INDUCED BY DRASTIC CLIMATIC CONDITIONS BY MEANS OF FTIR AND DSC

In this work, we have studied the ageing of high density polyethylene when exposed to drastic climatic conditions (canadian winter, characte rized by low temperature and abrupt temperature variations between the night and the day). The importance of degradation has been determined by measuring the crystallinity of HDPE samples by Fourier transform i nfrared espectrophotometry (FTi.r.) and differential scanning calorime try (DSC). Bath techniques led to coherent results: there was a loss o f crystallinity due to weathering degradation.