Soft recovery of polytetrafluoroethylene shocked through the crystalline phase II-III transition

Polymers are increasingly being utilized as monolithic materials and composite matrices for structural applications historically reserved for metals. High strain-rate applications in aerospace, defense, and the automotive industries have lead to interest in the shock response of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and the ensuing changes in polymer structure due to shock prestraining. We present an experimental study of crystalline structure evolution due to pressure-induced phase transitions in a semicrystalline polymer using soft-recovery, shock loading techniques coupled with mechanical and chemical postshock analyses. Gas-launched, plate impact experiments have been performed on pedigreed PTFE 7C, mounted in momentum trapped, shock assemblies, with impact pressures above and below the phase II to phase III crystalline transition. Below the phase transition only subtle changes were observed in the crystallinity, microstructure, and mechanical response of PTFE. Shock loading of PTFE 7C above the phase II-III transition was seen to cause both an increase in crystallinity from 38% to similar to 53% (by differential scanning calorimetry) and a finer crystalline microstructure, and changed the yield and flow stress behavior. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.