On the use of a Raman spectroscopy band to asses the crystalline lateral packing in polyethylene

In this study, a thorough analysis of the changes in position of the so-called Raman crystallinity band of polyethylene, i.e., 1415 cm(-1) Raman band, as a function of temperature, cold-drawing and material density and its interpretation are presented. This Raman band is thought to mainly arise from an interchain interaction, often termed factor group splitting, within the polyethylene orthorhombic lattice and its intensity is widely used to estimate the core orthorhombic crystallinity. The results gathered here support the additional use of this band as an original tool to gain insight into the chain lateral packing of the orthorhombic unit cell, and hence to asses the health of the orthorhombic polyethylene crystals. (C) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.