LOW-ANGLE ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION FROM HIGH-TEMPERATURE POLYSTYRENE CRAZES

Low-angle electron diffraction (LAED) was used to study the microstructure of crazes produced at different temperatures T and strain rates in thin films of monodisperse polystyrene. In this paper we demonstrate that LAED is a powerful technique for investigating the craze microstructure produced by straining at various temperatures and strain rates and show that the values of both the fibril diameter and the fibril spacing of crazes obtained are in good agreement with those obtained using small-angle x-ray scattering. These data are then analyzed using a simple model of craze growth to reveal the temperature and strain rate dependence of the total craze surface energy.