Abstract: | An experimental study about the effect of the crystallinity on the birefringence and microhardness of regenerated cellulose tubular films is reported. The degrees of crystallinity of samples varied between 0.53 and 0.66. It was demonstrated that for the polymeric films studied there was an excellent agreement between crystallinity and optical and microhardness anisotropies, showing that micro-indentation hardness, scarcely used but rapid and nondestructive, is a suitable technique for characterizing the degree of order in this polymer. |