Solution bath extensional machine

A homemade extensional machine with a water bath, which can realize the extension of PVA films in water, is used in this work as schematically shown in Fig. The width of the water bath along the incident direction of X-ray at the detection point is designed to be 3 mm, for the purpose of decreasing the absorption of X-ray by water. In order to increase the scattering intensity of samples during extension, eight PVA films are stacked to obtain the rectangular samples with length, width and thickness of 50, 10 and 0.64 mm, respectively. Then the samples were held by clamps and stretched with a deformation rate of 0.2mm/s, during which force is recorded with a load cell. Eight heater panels were installed on the outside surface of water bath to heat the water as shown in Fig. Therefore, by the use of ice cube and heating panels with temperature sensors, the samples extension can be performed at temperatures from 0 to 60 ℃.

FIG （a）schematic of Solution bath extensional machine；（b）Solution bath extensional machine

Tab Performance specifications