Low-temperature relaxations in styrene-crosslinked polyester networks. II. The γ′ relaxation

The low-temperature γ′ relaxation was found to originate in the diol units of a variety of crosslinked polyesters. The results were explained in terms of Boyer's Crankshaft model. As the polyester concentration in the networks increased, the γ′ relaxation shifted to higher temperatures and the intensity of the relaxation increased but not as rapidly as the diol concentration. This behaviour was interpreted in terms of an interaction of the relaxing species with the surrounding matrix.     

Low-temperature relaxations in styrene–crosslinked polyester networks

Two low-temperature dynamic mechanical relaxations have been observed in networks formed by copolymerization of poly(1,2-propylene fumarate) and poly(1,2-propylene phthalate fumarate) with styrene. The γ relaxation which occurs around ?100°C (1 Hz) is induced by small amounts of water, while the broad γ′ relaxation is reduced in height by the presence of water. Neither xylene nor 1,2-propylene glycol induced a γ relaxation. The γ relaxation was ascribed to motions involving a fumarate ester group–water complex.     

Dielectric relaxations of chitosan: The effect of water on the α‐relaxation and the glass transition temperature

In this work thermal relaxations of chitosan are reported by using a novel methodology that includes subtraction of the dc conductivity contribution, the exclusion of contact and interfacial polarization effects, and obtaining a condition of minimum moisture content. When all these aspects are taken into account, two relaxations are clearly revealed in the low frequency side of the impedance data. We focus on the molecular motions in neutralized and non‐neutralized chitosan analyzed by dielectric spectroscopy in the temperature range from 25 to 250 °C. Low and high frequency relaxations were fitted with the Havriliak and Negami model in the 10^?1 to 108 Hz frequency range. For the first time, the low frequency α‐relaxation associated with the glass‐rubber transition has been detected by this technique in both chitosan forms for moisture contents in the range 0.05 to 3 wt % (ca. 18–62 °C). A strong plasticizing effect of water on this primary α‐relaxation is observed by dielectric spectroscopy and is supported by dynamic mechanical analysis measurements. In the absence of water (<0.05 wt %) the α‐relaxation is obscured in the 20–70 °C temperature range by a superposition of two low frequency relaxation processes. The activation energy for the σ‐relaxation is about 80.0–89.0 kJ/mol and for β‐relaxation is about 46.0–48.5 kJ/mol and those values are in agreement with that previously reported by other authors. The non‐neutralized chitosan possess higher ion mobility than the neutralized one as determined by the frequency location of the σ‐relaxation. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 2259–2271, 2009     

Effect of substituents in the styrene ring on the dynamic mechanical relaxations of a styrene-crosslinked unsaturated polyester resin

The dynamic mechanical properties of a series of polyester resins made from a maleic/phthalic anhydride-based unsaturated polyester crosslinked with each of styrene, 4-methyl styrene, 4-ethyl styrene, 4-n-butyl styrene, 4-isopropyl styrene, tertiary butyl styrene, 4-chlorostyrene, and 3,4-dichlorostyrene were studied. The order of the α transition temperatures was as expected from that for the homopolymers, except in the case of the chlorostyrenes, for which dipolar interactions with the polyester chain may be important. The styrene bridges appeared to be involved in a steric interaction (and in the case of the chlorostyrenes, a dipolar interaction) with the β relaxing ester species. It is suggested that both the γ and γ′ relaxations involve similar interactions between the matrix and the relaxing moieties. For the 4-n-butyl styrene resin, an additional relaxation below ?170°C was observed, and is ascribed to relaxation of the n-butyl group.     

Mechanical relaxations in γ-ray-polymerized polyethylene

Dynamic mechanical properties of cold-compacted films of polyethylene prepared by γ-ray-induced polymerization in bulk at 30°C are discussed in connection with the fine structure. The cold-compacted films show a broad α-relaxation at a lower temperature than do single-crystal mats or melt-crystallized polymer. From the effects of annealing and swelling by carbon tetrachloride on the relaxation, it is concluded that the α-relaxation, like the α-relaxation in the single-crystal mats, originates from molecular motions within lamellar crystals. This is consistent with the finding that these films are composed of stacked small irregular lamellar crystals. The γ-relaxation is also similar to that in crystal mats.     

The effect of sorbed oxygen on the γ and δ dielectric relaxations in polystyrene

The γ and δ relaxations of polystyrene (PS) are rendered more active dielectrically by sorbed oxygen. This effect, coupled with comparative work on molecularly similar systems has led to the assignment of the γ relaxation to a rotational libration of the phenyl ring in PS. Specific interactions of the pendant phenyl ring with molecular oxygen to induce off-axis dipole moments in the phenyl moiety is proposed. It is concluded that this interaction is strong enough to influence the dielectric relaxation strength of other relaxations in PS. It is further concluded that because of the interactions occuring in aromatic polymers containing sorbed oxygen, care must be taken to exclude oxygen or to vary its content, in order that intrinsic motions in the polymer system can be studied.     

Origin of the γ relaxations in polyethylene and polytetrafluoroethylene

Mechanical relaxation has been studied at 0.67 cps in linear polyethylene (LPE) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) between ?190 and ?20°C. Specimens were prepared by use of various thermal treatments to produce in LPE a range of crystalline fractions from 0.690 to 0.825 and in PTFE from 0.615 to 0.870. An empirical theory is proposed relating the modulus of the crystalline–amorphous composite solid to the moduli and the volume fractions of the two phases. The empirical theory is shown to be in accord with the bounds of Hill and of Hashin and Shtrikman. The theory is used to determine the magnitudes of the crystalline and amorphous components of the low temperature relaxations in LPE and PTFE from measurements of logarithmic decrement and shear modulus. In PTFE the γ relaxation occurs in the amorphous fraction alone. In LPE the γ relaxation is a composite one, formed from the superposition of a small crystal relaxation and a large amorphous relaxation. For the crystal relaxation in LPE the ratio of relaxed to unrelaxed modulus equals 0.78; for the amorphous relaxation, the ratio equals 0.23. In a specimen of LPE with crystal fraction 0.69 the crystal contribution to the relaxation is 25% of the total. The magnitude of the unrelaxed modulus of the crystal fraction of LPE (modulus of polycrystalline LPE at ?190°C) is in reasonable agreement with theoretical calculations of Odajima and Maeda.     

Dynamic mechanical studies of α and β relaxations of polyethylenes

The α and β relaxations of a variety of polyethylenes have been extensively studied using lowfrequency dynamic mechanical methods. The main focus of this work has been both the control and the quantitative measurement of the key structural factors that describe semicrystalline polymer systems. The structural factors that have been examined in detail include the level of crystallinity, the crystallite thickness, the interfacial content, and the supermolecular structure. Consequently a variety of other types of supplementary measurements were made to accomplish the necessary characterization. The location of the α transition is found to depend primarily on the crystallite thickness. There also is the distinct possibility that the interfacial structure exerts an important influence. The level of crystallinity and the supermolecular structure do not play a significant role in the location of T_α. A strong correlation is found with the carbon-13 NMR crystalline T₁, which is reported in a separate paper. From analysis of the influence of the different structural factors on the β transition, it is concluded that this transition results from the relaxation of chain units which are located in the interfacial region. The elusiveness of this transition and the contradictory reports that have existed in the literature are given a ready explanation. The enhancement of this transition by branching and copolymerization follows naturally as does its invariance with counit content.     

Mechanical relaxation mechanism of epoxide resins cured with acid anhydrides. II. Effect of the chemical structure of the anhydrides on the β relaxation mechanism

The mechanism of low-temperature mechanical relaxation of acid-anhydride-cured epoxide resins has been investigated in detail. One mechanical relaxation, denoted as the β relaxation, is observed from ?80 to ?50°C for all epoxide resin systems cured with aromatic, alicyclic, and aliphatic anhydrides. The β relaxation increases in peak height and shifts to higher temperature with increasing molecular volume of the diester segments formed by the reaction of acid anhydrides. From these results, it is concluded that the β relaxation for anhydridecured systems is due to the motion of the diester segment, and that the intensity and peak position of the β relaxation depend on the molecular volume of this segment. Moreover, it was shown that the tensile impact strength of the anhydride-cured systems is governed by the intensity of the β relaxation of these systems when the parameters T_g and v of these systems are nearly constant.     

Influence of γ-irradiation in the molten state on the dynamic mechanical β relaxation and on the thermally stimulated depolarization currents of polyethylene

Dynamic mechanical and thermally stimulated depolarization current data have been obtained on polyethylene, γ-irradiated in the molten state, as a function of irradiation dose. The β peak which appears in mechanical experiments has been attributed to motions of the chain backbone. The branches, like the crosslinks coming from γ-irradiation, are fixed tie points for the chains.     

Pressure dependence of dielectric properties of chlorinated polyethylene vulcanizate. III. β relaxation

The effects of temperature and pressure on the shift factor and the dielectric increment of the β relaxation process were measured for vulcanized chlorinated polyethylene. The isobaric and isochoric activation enthalpies, H^*_P and H^*_V, the activation volume V^*, the pressure dependence of the glass–glass transition temperature, T_gβ/dP, and the apparent extinction temperature T_0β were obtained. The pressure dependences of both V^* and the dielectric increment would reach very small values near the liquid–glass transition temperature T_g, and the β process seems to be affected by the transition near T_g. The value of H^*v/H^*p for the β process is larger than that for the α process, and it is suggested that the molecular motions pertaining to the β process are more strongly restricted than those pertaining to the α process. The ratio T_0β/T₀, where T₀ is the characteristic temperature in the Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann–Hesse equation for the α process, follows the empirical relation of Matsuoka and Ishida, T_gβ/T_g ～0.75. The value of dT_gβ/dP estimated from T_g and T_0β/T₀ is consistent with the experimental value.     

Comparative study of dielectric,mechanical, and nuclear magnetic relaxations in linear polyethylene. II. Relaxation spectroscopy of the α, β, and γ loss bands with special emphasis on fine structure

Dielectric, mechanical, and NMR retardation (correlation) spectra for relaxations in linear polyethylene were calculated in normalized form and intercompared. For each of the two local-mode relaxations in the γ region, called γ₁ and γ₂, these spectra are found to be in excellent agreement. For the α region, the spectra for two mechanical processes, called α₁ and α₂, two NMR processes, called α′ and α, and one dielectric process α were calculated. Excellent agreement is found between the spectra for the dielectric α and NMR α′ processes and also spectra for the mechanical α₂ and NMR α processes, due to molecular motion in the interior of crystals. However, the spectrum for the mechanical α₁ process is different from that for the dielectric α and NMR α′ processes, though the activation energy for the first process is almost the same as for the other two. This behavior is interpreted on the assumption that the dielectric α and NMR α′ processes are caused by molecular motion in lamellar surface layers while the mechanical α₁ process is due to grain-boundary slip with viscous resistance of the surface layers in the boundaries. The shapes of the spectra, including the spectrum for the β process, are not affected by diluent.     

Influence of lanthanide triflate compounds on formation of networks from DGEBA and γ‐butyrolactone

Diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) was cured with γ‐butyrolactone (γ‐BL) using different lanthanide triflates as catalysts. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to study the different evolutions of the four elemental processes that took place during curing with lanthanum and ytterbium triflates. The greatest differences among the lanthanides were in oxophilicity and Lewis acidity. Differences in the coordination ability of the metal to the monomers were shown and according to the Pearson theory, were related to their different characteristics. Differences in the reactivity of the systems were related to the differences in the Lewis acidity of the initiators. The evolution of the contraction during curing using different lanthanide triflates was monitored by thermomechanical analysis. All systems showed that contraction took place in two stages and that there was an intermediate region, associated with gelation, with no contraction. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3782–3791, 2004     

Neutron spin echo investigations in the α and β relaxation regime of polybutadiene

This short review presents quasielastic neutron scattering and dielectric experiments on the α and β_slow relaxation in polybutadiene. Exploiting the momentum transfer dependent dynamic structure factor, spatial information about the underlying molecular motions is obtained. While the β_slow process reveals itself as a local jump with average jump distances of about 1.5 Å, the α relaxation is diffusive and occurs statistically independently from the β_slow process. With this result a consistent interpretation of dielectric spectra on the same polymer is achieved.     

The x-ray crystal and molecular structure of chloro-α,β,γ,δ-tetraphenylporphinatopyridinegallium(III)

Crystals of the title compound C₄₉H₃₃N₅ClGa·1/2C₅H₅N·1/2C₅H₁₂ [Ga(py)(Cl)(TPP)]·1/2(py)·1/2(n-pen) are monoclinic, P2₁/n, a = 13.162(2), b = 23.422(6), c, = 14.677(2) Å, β = 101.47(1)°, and Z = 4. The crystal structure refined to R = 0.056 for 2249 observed reflections. The coordination polyhedron of the gallium atom is an octahedron, and the distances between the central metal and axial ligands are Ga-Cl = 2.328(1) and Ga-py = 2.274(3) Å. The gallium atom is displaced slightly out of the porphyrin plane towards Cl, 0.14 Å from the 4N plane and 0.16 Å from the mean porphinato plane, with an average Ga-N distance of 2.01 Å. Although the complex is isostructural with the Mn and Co analogs, it is the first reported structure of a monomeric hexacoordinate gallium(III) porphyrin.     

Mechanical properties of unsaturated polyester resins in relation to their chemical structure. I. Secondary relaxations and local motions

Dynamic mechanical spectroscopy has been combined with high-resolution solid-state ¹³C NMR to characterize the molecular motions responsible for the γ and β secondary relaxations in unsaturated polyester networks. In DEG networks the 7γ transition is assigned to restricted phenyl group rotation in the styrene cross-links whereas the motion of molecular groups in the vicinity of the residual maleic double bonds account for the β transition. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Micromechanical fast quasi‐static detection of α and β relaxations with nanograms of polymer

Micromechanical string resonators are used as a highly sensitive tool for the detection of glass transition (T_g or α relaxation) and sub‐T_g (β relaxation) temperatures of polystyrene (PS) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The characterization technique allows for a fast detection of mechanical relaxations of polymers with only few nanograms of sample in a quasi‐static condition. The polymers are spray coated on one side of silicon nitride (SiN) microstrings. These are pre‐stressed suspended structures clamped on both ends to a silicon frame. The resonance frequency of the microstrings is then monitored as a function of increasing temperature. α and β relaxations in the polymer affect the net static tensile stress of the microstring and result in measureable local frequency slope maxima. T_g of PS and PMMA is detected at 91 ±2°C and 114 ±2°C, respectively. The results match well with the glass transition values of 93.6°C and 114.5°C obtained from differential scanning calorimetry of PS and PMMA, respectively. The β relaxation temperatures are detected at 30 ± 2°C and 33 ± 2°C for PS and PMMA which is in accordance with values reported in literature. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1035–1039     

Synthesis and polymerization of racemic and optically active β-substituted β-propiolactones. III. β-monosubstituted monomers and polymers

Optically active β-(1,1-dichloroethyl)-β-propiolactone (CH₃CCl₂-PL), β-(1,1-dichloropropyl)-β-propiolactone (C₂H₅CCl₂-PL), and β-(1,1-dichlorobutyl)-β-propiolactone (C₃H₇CCl₂-PL) were synthesized with enantiomeric excesses of 100, 100, and 84%, respectively. Polymerization was conducted in bulk and toluene solution, under vacuum, using mainly ZnEt₂/H₂O as initiator. Osmometry analyses indicate molecular weights in the range 10,000–25,000. The polymers thus prepared are semi-crystalline and show large optical rotation values.¹³ C-NMR was used to show that they have a high degree of isotacticity, indicating that little or no racemization occurs in the course of polymerization. Glass transition, melting and decomposition temperatures are given as a function of the size of the substituent, and their variations are discussed.     

Influence of the chemical structure on the kinetics of the structural relaxation process of acrylate and methacrylate polymer networks

The enthalpy relaxation of poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA), poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) and poly(ethyl acrylate) (PEA) networks, obtained by DSC, are compared. The temperature interval of the glass transition broadens in the sequence PEA-PEMA-PHEMA. The plots of the enthalpy loss during the annealing for 200 min at different temperatures below T_g show that the structural relaxation process also takes place in PHEMA in a broader temperature interval than in PEA or PEMA. The modelling of the structural relaxation process using a phenomenological model allows determining the temperature dependence of the relaxation times concluding that the fragility in PHEMA is significantly lower than in PEMA. Both features are ascribed to the connectivity of the polymer chains in PHEMA via hydrogen bonding. The role of the presence of the methyl group bonded to the main chain is analysed by comparing the results obtained in PEA and PEMA.     

Demetallation of α,β,γ,δ-tetrakis(p-sulfophenyl) porphiniron(III) in mineral acid–alcohol–water media

Demetallation rates of α,β,γ,δ-tetrakis(p-sulfophenyl)porphiniron(III) in hydrochloric acid–ethanol–water, perchloric acid–ethanol–water, and sulfuric acid–alcohol–water media were determined. For a given acidity value H₀ the order of the rates for the three acids was HCl > H₂SO₄ > HClO₄. This is also the order for complex formation between acid anion and iron(III). Consequently ligands as well as protons are involved in the breaking of bonds between the metal and the porphyrin leading to the formation of the activated complex. The log k values for HCl and HClO₄ media were not linearly related to the Hammett acidity function as they were for sulfuric acid–ethanol–water media. The average ΔH? and ΔS?values for the HCl media were 18.4 ± 1.4 kcal/mol and ? 19 ± 3 cal K mol, respectively, in very close agreement with those for H₂SO₄ media despite the difference in H ₀ dependence. For H₂SO₄–alcohol–water media the order of the rates was butanol > propanol > ethanol with little difference between isomeric alcohols.