Detailed mapping of biaxial orientation in polyethylene terephthalate bottles using polarised attenuated total reflection FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract Polarised attenuated total reflection FTIR spectroscopy has been used for detailed orientation mapping of 2l polyethylene terephthalate bottles subjected to different preform heating times. The results for the bottle with the standard preform heating time reveal significant surface orientation variations along the bottle hoop and length directions, with the inner bottle surface also showing consistently greater chain orientation in the hoop direction than found for the outer surface. Decreasing the preform heating time has less effect on the chain orientation than increasing the heating time, with the latter causing reduced chain orientation in the final bottle. The absorbance of the 1340 cm −1 band provides a quick and reliable indication of these chain orientation trends. In contrast, the extent of benzene ring orientation parallel to the bottle surface showed little variation and remained consistently high at the majority of the surface bottle positions probed.