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Full Record for Micrograph 589
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- Micrograph no
- 589
- Brief description
- Remnants of crazes on a polystyrene fracture surface
- Keywords
- brittle
, craze , craze remnants, fracture , polymer , polystyrene (PS) - Categories
- Fracture, Polymer
- System
- Polystyrene (PS)
- Composition
- Not specified
- Standard codes
- Reaction
- Processing
- Applications
- Polystyrene is hard and inexpensive and its use is very widespread. CD cases and clear plastic cups are common examples. Domestic appliance casings are also typically made from PS
- Sample preparation
- The surface has been sputter-coated with gold, to give a conducting surface
- Technique
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
- Length bar
- 8 μm
- Further information
- The fracture surfaces are generally very sharp and angular, indicating fast, brittle fracture with little ductile tearing. The flat region with a fine fibrous surface is the remnant of a craze which has formed ahead of the crack, and then failed, leaving a flat region.
- Contributor
- J A Curran
- Organisation
- Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
- Date
- 03/10/02
- Licence for re-use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International- Related micrographs