Diffraction of phenylone (Fig. 4, a) has got a broad amorphous halo (2Θ = 9°) and
contains no crystalline reflexes, which is typical for amorphous polymers with rather
rigid polymer chains and not very high molecular symmetry [15].
Amorphous polymers are disordered or badly ordered crystalline polymers. Their
high deficiency, compared to crystals of substances with low molecular weight is
conditioned, on the one hand, by the structural features of the polymer crystals, i.e. the
presence of folded conformation and, therefore, the appearance of defects in the bends
of macromolecules. On the other hand, it is conditioned by the presence of various
disturbances in the regularity of chains structure that disorder the crystalline lattice,
forming the systems of the "forced" solid inclusions [16].
Figure 4. X-ray diffraction graphs of phenylone (a), of copper powder (f) and
metal-containing polymers, filled with: 5 (b), 10 (c), 15 (d) and 20 wt. % (i) copper
With the help of quantitative X-ray analysis it has been found that the shortest
distance between atoms of phenylone is 0.56 nm, and the crystallite size is 1.77 nm
(see Table 2).
Table 2 The results of quantitative analysis X-ray diffraction graphs of
phenylone and metal-containing polymers filled with copper
Filler percentage (wt. %)
–
5
10
15
20
The shortest interatomic distance, R
0
(nm)
0.56
0.54
0.51
0.48
0.47
The average crystallite size, L (nm)
1.77
1.81
2.20
2.82
2.18
X-ray diffraction graphs of MPs containing copper as fillers (Fig. 4, b - i) show
two intense peak points characteristic for the cubic system which copper belongs to.
The distance between the planes of lattice d
HKL
are: 2.0834 (at 2Θ = 19˚36') and 1.7979
(at 2Θ = 22˚45'), corresponding to the number d
HKL
copper [17]. Also, they kept
amorphous halo characteristic for phenylone, which has a lower intensity and is shifted
towards larger angles by 0˚18` - 1˚25`. This is caused by defects of type I which do not
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