Structure and properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate) crystallized by annealing in the highly oriented state: 2. Melting behaviour and the mosaic block structure of the crystalline layers

The melting behaviour of drawn poly(ethylene terephthalate) bristles has been studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry. In addition the wide-angle X-ray diffraction pattern were analysed. For comparison some of the experiments were also carried out with undrawn samples. The differences in the melting curves of drawn and undrawn PET originate from the different crystallization kinetics. The density defect ($\text{?}{}^{\mathrm{id}}{}_{\mathrm{c}}\text{? ?1}{}_{\mathrm{c}}$) between the ideal crystal density ?^id_c and the effective density $\text{?1}{}_{\mathrm{c}}$ of the crystalline layers is a result of lattice vacancies introduced by the grain boundaries of the mosaic blocks. The relatively low ultimate crystallinity of PET is supposed to be caused by the hindrance of crystal growth of fibre direction during isothermal crystallization.