Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1118324579
ISBN 13: 978-1-11832-457-8

Chapter 21 - Optical Properties - Questions and Problems - Page 867: 21.22

Answer

Amorphous polymers are normally transparent because there is no scattering of light beams within the material. Whereas, for semicrystalline polymers, visible light will be scattered at boundaries between amorphous and crystalline regions since they have different indices of refraction. This leads to translucency, extensive scattering and opacity except for semicrystalline polymers that have very small crystallites.

Work Step by Step

Amorphous polymers are normally transparent because there is no scattering of light beams within the material. Whereas, for semicrystalline polymers, visible light will be scattered at boundaries between amorphous and crystalline regions since they have different indices of refraction. This leads to translucency, extensive scattering and opacity except for semicrystalline polymers that have very small crystallites.
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