Drawability of poly(vinyl alcohol) films prepared by gelation/crystallization from semidilute solutions

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films prepared by gelation/crystallization from dimethyl sulphoxide/water solutions were drawn in an oven at 125°C under nitrogen. Two PVA samples with degrees of polymerization of 2000 and 4400 were used. The drawability was affected by the composition of the solvent mixture as well as by the quenching temperature. This interesting phenomenon is discussed in terms of the morphology of the gels and dried films, as studied by crystallinity, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, birefringence and small-angle light scattering under Hv polarization. Thus, it turned out that crystallinity plays an important role in assuring facile drawability, while the solution concentration and the degree of polymerization have little effect on the drawability. The maximum draw ratio could be achieved only for specimens with the lowest crystallinity. This indicates that the deformation mechanism of PVA gel films is quite different from those of polyethylene and polypropylene gel films.