Characterization of Semi-crystalline Polymers Using MRI

Apostolos Kantzas1,2 and David Axelson3

1: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4, akantzas@ucalgary.ca.

2: Tomographic Imaging and Porous Media Laboratory, Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1N4.

3: MR_Consulting, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 4V1, axelsond@chem.queensu.ca.

Abstract - 1H single point magnetic resonance imaging (SPI)[1],[2],[3] has been introduced in the literature as a method for determining relaxation characteristics of semi-crystalline polymers and for extracting MRI images from such samples. The work presented in the literature to date demonstrates the applicability of this technique. In this work, SPI has been applied to the direct observation of stress-induced changes, temperature induced changes and structural changes in the apparent spin-spin relaxation time, T2*, in polyethylene samples. Several samples prepared under quite different conditions were studied.

Keywords: MRI, polymers, SPI, stress/strain, T2*