MICROSTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN THE BLOWN FILM EXTRUSION OF LINEAR LOW DENSITY POLYETHYLENES AS AFFECTED BY ALPHA-OLEFIN COMONOMERS.

The superior properties of blown films of LLDPE resins coupled with recent technological developments have created an active market in LLDPE resins and interest in their behavior. This paper is part of a major study which attempts to characterize the rheology, processing, microstructure and ultimate properties of blown films produced from commercial LLDPEs which have been copolymerized with different comonomers including butene, hexene, and octene. In this report, the authors briefly summarize the findings on the microstructure development aspects of these resins carried out by employing birefringence, infrared dichroic ratio, sonic modulus, crystallinity, and thickness distribution measurements.