Ml. Kerber et al., CRYSTALLIZATION AND STRESS-STRAIN PROPERTIES OF ULTRA-HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT POLYETHYLENE GELS FILLED WITH IRON PARTICLES, Polymer engineering and science, 37(8), 1997, pp. 1359-1366
Crystallization of ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene [UHMW-PE)
filled solutions and gels was studied by differential scanning calorim
etry. It has been found that the structure and properties of the gelat
ing systems depend on solvent type, polymer concentration, and filler.
Crystallization rate decreases as the polymer content is increased. T
he crystallization rate dependence on filler concentration passes thro
ugh a maximum. The influence of a disperse filler on the structure, th
e stress-strain and relaxation properties of UHMW-PE gels has been stu
died. The results demonstrate the advantage of using less thermodynami
cally active solvents (thermodynamic activity means polymer-solvent in
teraction]. This gel-technology enables us to obtain UHMW-PE based mat
erials with a 90-vol% content of iron particles. Highly loaded fibers
based on UHMW-PE were obtained with a tensile strength of 40-50 MPa an
d an elastic modulus of 350-400 MPa.