Dynamic nuclear polarization of high- and low-crystallinity polyethylenes

We carried out a dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) study of high- and low-crystallinity polyethylene films defined as HPE and LPE, respectively, which were doped with TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetra-methyl-piperidine-1-oxyl) by the same amount (1×1019 spins/cm3). The proton polarization of 32±3% was obtained for LPE and 23±4% for HPE at 3.35 T and 1.4 K. With increase in the concentration of TEMPO, the electron spin resonance (ESR) linewidth of TEMPO in HPE increased more steeply than that in LPE, indicating that TEMPO did not incorporated into the crystalline part, and was localized only at the amorphous part, hence the local concentration of TEMPO in the amorphous regions of HPE varied more steeply than that of LPE with the net amount of TEMPO fed into the film. We suggest that the smaller nuclear polarization for HPE is related to the localization of TEMPO in the smaller amorphous regions.