STRUCTURE OF QUENCHED FORM OF POLYPROPYLENE

In the reported experiments, x-ray diffraction has been used to further investigate the quenched form of polypropylene. The diffractometer traces were analyzed by a mathematical peak separation procedure which assumed a combined Cauchy and Gaussian shape for the peaks. The results confirmed that the quenched form contains about 605 of amorphous polypropylene. In the remainder, the x-ray diffraction peak positions indicate that the chain helices are arranged in a square array and a cubic or tetragonal symmetry is proposed for this phase. The shape of the x-ray diffractometer peaks indicates a degree of strain in the structure. Crystallite sizes, determined from peak breadths, have been estimated as approximately 30 A.