Eutectic solidification of the pseudo binary system of polyethylene and 1, 2, 4, 5-tetrachlorobenzene

This paper describes a study on the solidification of the pseudo binary eutectic system, consisting of unfractionated linear polyethylene and the faceted growing diluent 1, 2, 4, 5-tetrachlorobenzene. Crystallization under eutectic conditions resulted in very fine-grained structures, which were found to depend on the growth rate. This rate of solidification was varied by pulling the polymer solutions through a fixed temperature gradient of 3° C mm−1 at different speeds ranging from 1 to 216 mm h−1. Fibrillar polymer crystals with lateral dimensions of about 0.5 μm remained after removal of the solid diluent. At rates of solidification in the region of 2 to 20 mm h−1, the fibrils appeared to be aggregated in domains of well oriented structures, closely resembling the complex regular structures of the eutectic Sn-Bi system. At higher speeds the fibrillar crystals formed an irregular three-dimensional network. The polymeric structures grown from more dilute mixtures were characterized by rectangular holes originating from the growth of faceted primary diluent crystals. Despite the complexity of the crystallization of the highly entangled polymer solutions there appears to be quite some similarities between the eutectic polymeric system investigated and faceted/non-faceted atomic or small molecular eutectics.