摘要
Craze microstructure in thin film monodisperse polystyrene (PS) was determined by three equivalent, but independent, techniques: (1) low-angle electron diffraction (LAED) from the crazes, (2) the image analysis of microdensitometer scans of craze TEM images, and (3) optical transforms of the TEM images. Molecular weights of 11×10 4 and 18×10 5 were investigated. The average craze fibril spacings and fibril diameters in the samples were measured by LAED and then compared with those obtained from the image analyses. Excellent agreement was found between the three techniques, indicating that any one can be used for craze fibril structure exploration. While the craze fibril structure near the craze-matrix interface of crazes in both the 18×10 5 and 11×10 4 were similar, the fibril structure was coarser in the centre of 11×10 4 crazes than in 18×10 5 crazes. This effect is believed to be due to fibril coalescence in the centre of the low molecular weight crazes during the very low strain rate tensile deformation used to produce those crazes. © 1986 Chapman and Hall Ltd.