Light scattering by optically heterogeneous polymer systems: stress whitening in polypropylene materials

Summary A theoretical background is presented which allows the assessment of the physical nature of turbidity in heterogeneous polymeric materials. The theory (based on the diffusion approximation of the transfer theory and Kubelka-Munk theory) predicts a decreasing spectral dependence of turbidity with increasing wavelength for a matrix with embedded particles of slightly different refractive indices, but a flat dependence of this quantity for a matrix material with microvoids. It is demonstrated that the diffuse reflectance displays the same type of wavelength dependence for the thick layer approximation. Indeed, diffuse light reflectance experiments on bulk specimens using an integrating sphere accessory reveal the first type of behaviour for nondeformed neat and rubber-modified polypropylenes. On the other hand, the second type of behaviour was observed with stress-whitened neat and rubber-modified polypropylenes after solid-state drawing.