STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE OF MICROPOROUS POLYETHYLENE FILM USING ISOTROPIC AND ANISOTROPIC LIQUIDS

Microporous polyethylene films obtained by extruding a melt of linear polyethylene, followed by annealing, uniaxial stretching, and thermal fixation, contain a large number of pores and through channels and pos sess a strongly developed surface. Despite the high degree of orientat ion, these samples are nontransparent. When the pores are filled with liquid-crystal media, the films become transparent, which makes it pos sible to obtain pictures of the scattering from the porous structures in natural and polarized light by means of a polarization microscope. (C) 1998 The Optical Society of America.