Multi‐Modal Imaging of the Loading Heterogeneity in Blended Films of Amorphous and Semi‐Crystalline Polymers During Stretching
Abstract
Spatially correlated spectroscopic and X‐ray scattering are used to identify the load bearing structures in melt blended poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with medium‐density polyethylene (MDPE) and high‐density polyethylene (HDPE). Regions of failure during uniaxial tensile deformation of films were identified using optical microscopy; crazes and domains oriented orthogonally to the extension direction are micron‐scale in pure PLA but expand to millimeter‐scale in the blended materials. Polarized infrared and Raman microspectroscopy reveals specific molecular orientation of the PLA and PE chains in the failure regions. Spatially localized X‐ray scattering provided information on crystalline (wide angle X‐ray scattering, WAXS) and meso‐scale domains (small angle X‐ray scattering, SAXS) and orientational information on these domains. The phase‐separated PE structures are shown to play a role in the distribution of load in the blend during extension, inhibiting the formation of PLA fibrils. These results indicate that the improved mechanical performance arises from a local redistribution of stresses in the brittle PLA by the PE phase in the craze region. A simple representation, pixel mapping of extracted parameters, from the large data sets would be suitable for more rapid and advanced multivariate analysis for mechanistic understanding and further materials improvement.
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BibTeX
@article{kreuzer2026multimodal,
title = {{Multi‐Modal Imaging of the Loading Heterogeneity in Blended Films of Amorphous and Semi‐Crystalline Polymers During Stretching}},
author = {Martin Kreuzer and Maria Stec and Graeme Moad and Peter Halley and Marianne Impéror-Clerc and Stéphan Rouzière and Jennifer Bodin and Jan Ilavsky and Emigdio Chávez-Ángel and Aitor Mugarza and Francisco Martínez López and Juan Carlos Martínez Guil and Marc Raventós Tato and Marc Malfois and Bronwyn Laycock and Christopher Garvey},
journal = {Journal of Polymer Science},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1002/pola.70383},
url = {https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-05852281v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Multi‐Modal Imaging of the Loading Heterogeneity in Blended Films of Amorphous and Semi‐Crystalline Polymers During Stretching
AU - Martin Kreuzer
AU - Maria Stec
AU - Graeme Moad
AU - Peter Halley
AU - Marianne Impéror-Clerc
AU - Stéphan Rouzière
AU - Jennifer Bodin
AU - Jan Ilavsky
AU - Emigdio Chávez-Ángel
AU - Aitor Mugarza
AU - Francisco Martínez López
AU - Juan Carlos Martínez Guil
AU - Marc Raventós Tato
AU - Marc Malfois
AU - Bronwyn Laycock
AU - Christopher Garvey
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
JO - Journal of Polymer Science
DO - 10.1002/pola.70383
UR - https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-05852281v1
AB - Spatially correlated spectroscopic and X‐ray scattering are used to identify the load bearing structures in melt blended poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with medium‐density polyethylene (MDPE) and high‐density polyethylene (HDPE). Regions of failure during uniaxial tensile deformation of films were identified using optical microscopy; crazes and domains oriented orthogonally to the extension direction are micron‐scale in pure PLA but expand to millimeter‐scale in the blended materials. Polarized infrared and Raman microspectroscopy reveals specific molecular orientation of the PLA and PE chains in the failure regions. Spatially localized X‐ray scattering provided information on crystalline (wide angle X‐ray scattering, WAXS) and meso‐scale domains (small angle X‐ray scattering, SAXS) and orientational information on these domains. The phase‐separated PE structures are shown to play a role in the distribution of load in the blend during extension, inhibiting the formation of PLA fibrils. These results indicate that the improved mechanical performance arises from a local redistribution of stresses in the brittle PLA by the PE phase in the craze region. A simple representation, pixel mapping of extracted parameters, from the large data sets would be suitable for more rapid and advanced multivariate analysis for mechanistic understanding and further materials improvement.
SN - 0022-3832
SN - 1542-6238
ER -