Nowadays, irradiation crosslinking is still a primary method to improve the wear resistance of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). As a semi-crystalline polymer, crystalline structure of UHMWPE will also significantly affect the abrasion performance. Due to the difficulty in obtaining a wide range of crystallinity (X_c), there is less knowledge on the synergistic enhancement of crosslinking and crystallization to wear resistance. Herein, a combination of using low entanglement nascent powder and adjusting thermal history of sinter molding causes the X_c of UHMWPE varied in a range of 44%∼56%, and then γ-ray irradiation is utilized to form crosslinking between molecular chains. The significances of crystallization on the wear resistance of crosslinked UHMWPE are manifested as follows. (1) When X_c maintains almost constant, the wear rate per 10⁵ cycles doesn't decrease continuously with the increase of molecular weight (MW), indicating the effect of MW on abrasion performance is limited. (2) For the crosslinked samples with same MW but different X_cs, the wear rate reduces monotonously as increasing X_c. It drops for −41% at the highest X_c, which means the wear resistance is susceptible to the amount of crystalline phase. (3) By exposing to γ-irradiation, the wear rate of the low-X_c sample (44%) reduces for −12%, while it reaches −21% for the counterpart with X_c∼56%. Obviously, crosslinking at high X_c is more effective in tailoring wear resistance. In addition, the fact that among the samples with similar X_c the wear rate changes faintly regardless of distinct variations in crystalline microstructure, suggests X_c plays a vital role on anti-abrasive behavior rather than other structural factors. According to these results, we propose an effective strategy to improve the wear resistance of crosslinked UHMWPE by utilizing high crystallinity, which has potential for developing high-performance artificial joint prosthesis materials.

目前，辐照交联仍然是提高超高分子量聚乙烯（UHMWPE）耐磨性的主要方法。作为半结晶聚合物，UHMWPE的结晶结构也会显着影响耐磨性能。由于难以获得宽范围的结晶度（Xc），交联和结晶协同增强耐磨性的知识较少_{。在此，使用低缠结初生粉末和调整烧结成型的热历史的}组合导致XcUHMWPE的含量在44%～56%之间变化，然后利用γ射线辐照在分子链之间形成交联。结晶对交联UHMWPE耐磨性的意义体现如下。(1) 当X _{c基本保持不变时，每10} ^{5 个}循环的磨损率并没有随着分子量( MW )的增加而连续下降，表明MW对磨损性能的影响是有限的。(2) 对于具有相同MW但不同X _c s的交联样品，磨损率随着X _c的增加而单调降低。它在最高X _c处下降 −41%，这意味着耐磨性易受晶相量的影响。(3) 通过暴露于 γ 辐照，低X _c样品 (44%)的磨损率降低了 -12%，而X _c ~56%的样品磨损率达到 -21% 。显然，高Xc下的交_联在定制耐磨性方面更有效。此外，在具有相似Xc_的样品中，无论晶体微观结构的明显变化如何，磨损率都会发生微弱变化，这一_事实表明Xc对抗磨损行为而不是其他结构因素起着至关重要的作用。根据这些结果，我们提出了一种利用高结晶度提高交联超高分子量聚乙烯耐磨性的有效策略，具有开发高性能人工关节假体材料的潜力。