Biaxial Orientation Mechanism of Drawn Natural Rubber. II. Quantitative Analysis of the Biaxial Orientation

Natural rubber film was prepared from triple centrifuged latex. The film was uniaxially drawn at room temperature and the induced crystalline orientation was quantitatively studied by wide angle X‐ray diffraction. The intensity distribution of 200 and 120 reflections confirmed that the induced crystals have a biaxial orientation with the c‐axis parallel to the draw direction. The orientation of the a‐axis was evaluated by using an orientation function of the (200) plane. The function (F ₂₀₀) indicated that the crystalline a‐axis is parallel to the film surface depending on the draw ratio and on positions in the film. The experimental results are possible to explain by shish‐kebab‐like crystallization developed from a highly oriented fibril. The secondary crystallization grows perpendicularly to the draw direction along the a‐axis. The population of the secondary crystals is controlled by an ellipsoidal free space. The shape of the ellipsoid is changed by the fibril distribution depending on width and thickness of the sample film. In this study, the quantitative biaxial orientation is consistently explained by the shish‐kebab‐like crystallization and the ellipsoidal free space.

Keywords:

• intensity distribution
• orientation function
• (200) plane
• primary fibrils
• shish‐kebab‐like crystallization
• secondary crystals
• ellipsoidal free space