Enthalpy Relaxation, Crystal Nucleation and Crystal Growth of Biobased Poly(butylene Isophthalate)

oleh: Silvia Quattrosoldi, René Androsch, Andreas Janke, Michelina Soccio, Nadia Lotti

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-01-01

Deskripsi

The crystallization behavior of fully biobased poly(butylene isophthalate) (PBI) has been investigated using calorimetric and microscopic techniques. PBI is an extremely slow crystallizing polymer that leads, after melt-crystallization, to the formation of lamellar crystals and rather large spherulites, due to the low nuclei density. Based upon quantitative analysis of the crystal-nucleation behavior at low temperatures near the glass transition, using Tammann&#8217;s two-stage nuclei development method, a nucleation pathway for an acceleration of the crystallization process and for tailoring the semicrystalline morphology is provided. Low-temperature annealing close to the glass transition temperature (<i>T</i><sub>g</sub>) leads to the formation of crystal nuclei, which grow to crystals at higher temperatures, and yield a much finer spherulitic superstructure, as obtained after direct melt-crystallization. Similarly to other slowly crystallizing polymers like poly(ethylene terephthalate) or poly(<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">l</span>-lactic acid), low-temperature crystal-nuclei formation at a timescale of hours/days is still too slow to allow non-spherulitic crystallization. The interplay between glass relaxation and crystal nucleation at temperatures slightly below <i>T</i><sub>g</sub> is discussed.