Morphological studies of water trees in polyolefin

The morphological aspects of bow-tie generation in polyolefins are described. The degree of tree generation in a variety of polyolefins has been evaluated and found to be dependent on the degree of crystallinity present, with semicrystalline low-density polyethylenes showing the least resistance. Hydrophilication of crosslinked polyethylene resulted in excellent resistance to bow-tie tree generation. In order to assess the effect of morphological properties, polyethylene samples were subjected to a variety of strains, and bow-tie tree formation was found to be influenced by molecular chain orientation propagating in a specific direction of the chain. This suggests that bow-tie tree growth can be restricted by controlling the molecular chain orientation.<>