Comparison between x-ray diffraction and quantitative surface calorimetry based on infrared thermography to evaluate strain-induced crystallinity in natural rubber.

ABSTRACT

The crystallinity of stretched crystallizable rubbers is classically evaluated using x-ray diffraction (XRD). As crystallization is a strongly exothermal phenomenon, quantitative surface calorimetry from infrared thermography offers an interesting alternative to XRD for determining the crystallinity. In this paper, the two measurement techniques have been used for evaluating the strain-induced crystallinity of the same unfilled natural rubber. This study provides the first comparison between the two techniques. The results obtained highlight the very satisfactory agreement between the two measurements, which opens a simple way for evaluating the strain-induced crystallinity from temperature measurements.