Investigating morphology and deformation behavior of multilayered PC/PET composites

Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning force microscopy (SFM), this work deals with morphology and micromechanical deformation behavior of coextruded multilayers comprising alternating layers of polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The multilayered composites were found to consist of macroscopically aligned continuous layers of the constituents having nearly uniform thickness. On annealing the samples, the PET layers were found to undergo cold-crystallization and to form lamellar crystals independent of thickness of individual layers. Under the influence of tensile loading, mechanical properties of the composites was found to be intermediate between that of the constituent homopolymers. The components of the multilayered composites deformed in homogeneous manner at high strains without forming localized deformation zones. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley U Sons, Ltd.