The effect of the hot stretching process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of nylon 6 (PA6) films was studied. The PA6 films were treated by uniaxial hot stretching in the temperature range of glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting point (Tm), and microstructure and mechanical properties of the films were characterized. The results show that with the increasing of the tensile temperature and the tensile ratio, the degree of transformation from β crystal form to α crystal form in PA6 was increasing, which promotes the crystallization and orientation of the molecular chain in PA6 along the stretched direction, thus significantly improved the crystallization degree of PA6. Moreover, it is found that the amorphous region decreased and the glass transition temperature (Tg) increased. The increase of tensile temperature is beneficial to the growth of α crystal plane in PA6, and the more complete α crystal is formed at high temperatures. With the increase of the tensile ratio, the integrity degree of α crystal increased at first and then decreased. After hot stretching, the tensile strength and storage modulus of PA6 films increased, yet the elongation at break decreased. Compared with unstretched PA6 films, the tensile strength of PA6 films at the tensile temperature of 160℃ and the tensile ratio of 3 was increased by 371%, and the elongation at break decreased by 235%. © 2021, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.
