Elucidation of the relationships of structure-process-property for different ethylene/α-olefin copolymers during film blowing: An in-situ synchrotron radiation X-ray scattering study

Abstract The copolymerization of ethylene and different α-olefins could result in polyethylene (PE) with different structural topologies, and lead to polyethylene products with different macroscopic performances. Herein, three different polyethylene samples, namely low-density polyethylene (l-PE), metallocene catalyzed ethylene-hexene copolymer (h-PE) and ethylene-octene copolymer (o-PE), were selected as representatives to construct the structure-process-property relationship during film blowing. The detailed crystal-based network evolution during film blowing was first characterized by in-situ synchrotron radiation X-ray scattering. The crystallization process of l-PE film is determined by the coupling effects of temperature and flow, while those of h-PE and o-PE films are dominated by the temperature. Furthermore, the hierarchical crystal structure from the molecular scale to micrometers of final films and segmental dynamics were systematically characterized by multiple ex-situ characterization techniques, i.e. Solid-State NMR, FTIR, SEM. l-PE film shows the crystalline morphology of the row-nucleated structure, whereas h-PE and o-PE show spherulite-like superstructure with better mechanical properties. The current study tentatively constructs the relation of primary chemical structure, microstructural evolution and macroscopic performances of different polyethylene copolymers during film blowing.