The effect of copolymerization on transition temperatures of polymeric materials

The relationship between transition temperatures and copolymer composition was studied by DSC. Three types of copolymers were studied: styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN), vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate (VC-VA), and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). SAN's and VC-VA's are amorphous copolymers, whereas EVA's are semi-crystalline copolymers. The variation of the glass transitions and the crystalline melting are discussed in this study.     

Crystallization of branched polymers. I. Ethylene–vinyl acetate and ethylene–acrylic acid copolymers

The following quantities were measured on a number of ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) and ethylene–acrylic acid (EAA) copolymers: (1) the small-angle x-ray scattering invariant, (2) the overall density, and (3) the crystallinity. Assuming a two-phase structure, the separate values of the densities of the crystalline and amorphous regions can be calculated from these data. Of these, the crystalline density is compared with the value obtained from the lattice constants. A systematic difference is observed which is ascribed to the presence of comonomeric side groups in the crystalline regions. For the EVA and EAA samples, their concentration is at least 0.3 and 0.5 times the overall concentration, respectively. The amorphous densities are found to be higher than the values calculated from completely amorphous copolymers by extrapolation procedures.     

Thermodynamics of crystalline linear high polymers. IV. The effect of ethyl,acetate, and hydroxyl side groups on the properties of polyethylene

Copolymers of ethylene with vinyl acetate, vinyl alcohol, and butene-1 have been investigated by differential thermal analysis. The method of fast heating is used to approximate a zero entropy production heating path. The activity of crystallizable units in the melt, the crystallinity, and the a-axis spacings are determined and compared with previous results for copolymers of ethylene and propylene and carbon monoxide. Carbonyl and hydroxyl groups form point defects, forming solutions in both the crystalline and amorphous regions. Methyl, ethyl, and acetate groups form large amorphous defects. The maximum melting point of polyethylene is calculated to be 142.6°C.     

Kinetic Study of the Accelerating Effect of Coal-burning Additives on the Combustion of Graphite

The relationship between copolymer composition and transition temperatures was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical spectroscopy. Six samples of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers containing from 5 to 40 mass per cent of vinyl acetate (VA) were studied. The differential scanning calorimetric analysis revealed that each EVA copolymer displays two endothermic peaks (T_m1 and T_m2 ) in the melting zone. Dynamic mechanical spectroscopy was used to determine the primary relaxation temperature (T_α ) for EVA copolymers. This latter characteristic is relatively insensitive to the level of vinyl acetate contained in the copolymer and is influenced by the pulsation frequency ω, also named the angular frequency. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Thermal analysis and FT‐IR studies of adsorbed poly(ethylene‐stat‐vinyl acetate) on silica

Adsorbed poly(ethylene‐stat‐vinyl acetate) (PEVAc) on fumed silica was studied using temperature‐modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) and FT‐IR spectroscopy. The properties of the copolymers were compared with poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) as references. TMDSC analysis of the copolymer‐silica samples in the glass transition region was complicated for the copolymers because of the ethylene crystallinity. Nevertheless, examination of the glass transition region for small adsorbed amounts of these copolymers indicated the presence of tightly‐ and loosely‐bound polymer segments, similar to other polymers which have an attraction to silica. Compared with bulk polymers with the same composition, the tightly‐bound polymers showed an increased glass transition temperature (T_g) and a loosely‐bound fraction with a lower T_g than bulk. FT‐IR spectra of the surface copolymers indicated that the fraction of bound carbonyls (p) increased as the fraction of vinyl acetate in the copolymers decreased, consistent with the notion that the carbonyls from vinyl acetate preferentially find their way to the silica surface. Spectra from samples with different adsorbed amounts of polymer were used to obtain the amount of bound polymer (M_b) and the ratio of molar absorption coefficients of bound carbonyls to free carbonyls (X). The copolymers had very large p values (up to 0.8) at small adsorbed amounts and dependent on the composition of the polymer. However, an analysis of the bound fractions, based on only the vinyl acetate groups, superimposed the data, suggesting that the ethylene units simply dilute the vinyl acetate groups in the surface polymer. The sample with the smallest fraction of vinyl acetate did not show this behavior and may be considered to be “carbonyl poor.” © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 727–736     

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies on microstructure of ethylene copolymers. VII. Proton resonance spectra of hydrolyzed ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymers1

Complete and partial alcoholyses of ethylene–vinyl acetate (E–VA) copolymers yield ethylene–vinyl alcohol (E–VOH) copolymers and ethylene–vinyl acetate–vinyl alcohol (E–VA–VOH) terpolymers, respectively. From the 220-MHz proton NMR spectra of E–VOH copolymers the stereoregular and chemical sequence distributions of the comonomers can be readily determined. Partially hydrolyzed E–VA polymers were acetylated with perdeuterated acetic anhydride. The monomer distributions in the terpolymers were then quantitatively determined by examining the proton spectra of the derived products. It was found that alcoholysis of E–VA polymers occurs preferentially at VA units which have neighboring VA groups.     

Irradiation effects on thermal,surface, and physicomechanical properties of ethylene and vinyl acetate copolymer

The structural and thermal transitions for ethylene and vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) samples irradiated by fast electrons at doses in the range of 2.5–25 Mrad were investigated by DSC and X-ray diffraction analysis. The parameters of chemical bonds in the amorphous phase of copolymer were determined. The change in the degree of crystallinity, melting temperature, and crystallite sizes before and after radiochemical modification were estimated. The obtained results were analyzed and corresponded to the physicomechanical properties of copolymers. The surface energy of copolymers before and after irradiation was defined. The strength of adhesive joints based on EVA from PET substrates and the influence of radiochemical modification of adhesive before joint formation on its strength were analyzed.     

Effect of N-substitution on the crystallinity of polylaurolactam

Poly(N-ethyl laurolactam) and poly(N-benzyl laurolactam) were prepared from the corresponding monomers by hydrolyic polymerization. Unlike the partially crystalline poly(N-methyl laurolactam), these two homopolymers were completely amorphous by x-ray diffraction. Diffraction patterns of copolymers of N-ethyl laurolactam or N-benzyl laurolactam with laurolactam were shown to be composition-dependent. For N-ethyl laurolactam copolymers, crystallinity developed with 20% laurolactam as a comonomer and increased steadily with a subsequent change in the x-ray pattern, up to 50% laurolactam. Higher laurolactam percentages resulted in copolymers having a nylon 12 x-ray pattern. N-Benzyl laurolactam copolymers with 30% laurolactam showed only 6% crystallinity. The x-ray patterns of N-benzylated nylon 12 made with more than 50% laurolactam showed patterns similar to that of nylon 12. Differential scanning calorimetry data of all these polymers substantiate the x-ray findings. The effect of type and concentration of the N-substituent on the glass transition, melting, and crystallization temperatures of the polymers is discussed.     

The thermal degradation of copolymers of vinyl acetate with methyl methacrylate and other monomers

The thermal degradation of copolymers of vinyl acetate with methyl methacrylate, styrene and ethylene has been investigated using thermal volatilization analysis and thermogravimetry, together with analysis of volatile and involatile degradation products. All three copolymer systems show some of the features characteristic of the homopolymers of the monomers concerned. There is evidence, however, for an intramolecular lactonization process in VA—MMA copolymers, involving reaction of adjacent VA and MMA units with elimination of methyl acetate. This reaction occurs less readily than the analogous process in vinyl chloride—MMA copolymers. Mechanisms of the various degradation reactions are discussed.     

Side-chain crystallinity. III. Influence of side-chain crystallinity on the glass transition temperatures of selected copolymers incorporating n-octadecyl acrylate or vinyl stearate

The influence of side-chain crystallinity on the glass transition temperatures of selected copolymers was investigated. The copolymers were selected, in part, from those whose crystallinity was treated in the preceding paper. These included the lower amorphous acrylate esters, such as methyl, ethyl, n-butyl, and 2-ethylhexyl acrylates, together with methyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile, each copolymerized with n-octadecyl acrylate over the range of composition. The decline in the glass transition temperature was linear with increasing weight fraction of n-octadecyl acrylate for all systems in the composition range where the copolymers were essentially amorphous. The extrapolated T_g for the amorphous state of poly(n-octadecyl acrylate), and for amorphous poly(oleyl acrylate), was close to ?111°C. This coincided with a value previously obtained by an extrapolation of data on homologs. Beyond a critical fraction of octadecyl acrylate (0.3 to 0.5), developing side-chain crystallinity in n-octadecyl acrylate raised the glass temperature steadily for all systems, up to a value of 17-C, obtained for the crystalline homopolymer. Crystallinity did not develop in stiff copolymers until T_g was about 30°C below the melting point of the most perfect crystals. In compositionally heterogeneous copolymers incorporating vinyl stearate, blocks of crystalline units appeared to be dispersed in a glassy matrix of amorphous co-units. An empirical equation was derived which fitted the experimental data for random copolymers, over all composition ranges, with fair accuracy.     

VDF/TFE/PMVE三元共聚物的结构与性能研究

控制不同单体的起始组成合成了一系列偏氟乙烯 (VDF) 四氟乙烯 (TFE) 全氟甲基乙烯基醚 (PMVE)三元共聚物 ,通过1 9F NMR测定了这类三元共聚物的组成 ,结果与按竞聚率的计算结果吻合 .进一步分别用DSC和WAXD表征了玻璃化温度和结晶度 ,实验结果发现用这类三元共聚物制成的硫化胶的性能与其组成和微观结构密切相关     

Reactivity differences between isolated and vicinal vinyl acetate functions in high pressure ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymers

Three ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymers (3.5, 12.0 and 18.8 mol% VA; average melt index 8.5 g/10 min) were transformed into ethylene/vinyl alcohol copolymers and ethylene/vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate terpolymers by homogeneous saponification. The reaction rate increased with mol% VA. This feature originated in the reactivity differences beteen vicinal and isolated VA functions. Simultaneous steric and polarity effects caused the reaction rate differences. ¹H-NMR, i.r., dielectric measurements and additional saponification reactions confirmed the difference of reactivity.     

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies on microstructure of ethylene copolymers. VI. Carbon-13 spectra of ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymers

The 22.6-MHz Fourier-transform noise-decoupled ¹³C (carbon-13) NMR spectra of several ethylene–vinyl acetate (E–VA) copolymers were obtained. We found that triad information on monomer placement can be deduced from carbonyl resonances, triad and pentad information can be deduced from methine carbon resonances, and triad information is available from the methylene carbon resonances. The random comonomer distributions in E–VA polymerizations were demonstrated up to pentad placements. In addition, the use of model-compound data in the analysis of copolymer spectra was shown.     

Carbon-13 NMR relaxation and transitions in polymers

High-resolution proton-decoupled carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation parameters have been obtained as a function of temperature for a set of completely amorphous polymers, semicrystalline polymers, and a series of ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymers. With these samples the nature of the glass temperature, other postulated amorphous transitions, and the β transition were investigated. For the completely amorphous polymers, the average correlation times depend on temperature according to the Williams–Landel–Ferry relation. Spectral collapse occurs at temperatures whose ratio to T_g is in the range 1.2–1.4 and corresponds to a correlation time of about 10^?7s. The loss of resolvable spectra is demonstrated to be a consequence of experimental methods and is not due to the occurrence of another amorphous transition. Both the methylene and methine carbons can be resolved for the ethylenevinyl acetate copolymers. Although the correlation time for the methylene carbon is continuous and resolvable through the β transition region, the methine branch-point resonance is lost. The implication of these results to the molecular nature of the β transition is discussed.     

Conducting composites from EPDM–EVA blends

The effect of ethylidene norbornene (ENB) content of ethylene propylene aiene rubber (EPDM) and vinyl acetate (VA) content of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), as well as the blending sequence, on the conductivity of composites based on EPDM–EVA–carbon black have been studied. Black master batches show a lower extent of cure than the preblended system followed by black addition. EPDM having a high ENB content shows higher conductivity under ambient conditions. Preblended systems give rise to higher conductivity in the case of low-ENB content EPDM. But for high-ENB content EPDM, the blending of black master batches imparts high conductivity. Two types of conduction are observed in this case and the transition temperature depends on the VA content of EVA. It appears that there exists a correlation between activation energy of curing and that of conduction.     

Structure investigations of PE-g-LCP copolymers

 Transesterification products – copolymers of semiflexible liquid crystalline polymer SBH 112 grafted to functionalized low molecular mass polyethylene (PEox) obtained by melt polycondensation or reactive blending procedures have been investigated by wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The x-ray diffraction patterns of PE-g-LCP copolymers obtained via both procedures consist of reflections typical for the orthorhombic crystalline lattice of PE and the single reflection of the solid LCP. The lack of d _hkl variations with respect to those of neat PEox and SBH indicates the absence of interactions in the crystalline phase or that of cocrystallization phenomena between the components of the PE-g-SBH copolymers. The analysis of the crystallinity degree and normalized amorphous and crystalline contributions to the diffraction patterns of the products suggests that both copolymer components are partly miscible in the amorphous phase. The extent of miscibility depends on the copolymer structure, namely on the length of PE segments and SBH grafts. PE segments in PE-g-SBH copolymers obtained by the reactive blending are longer and exhibit a higher crystallizability than those obtained via melt polycondensation. SBH grafts of the copolymers obtained by the reactive blending are also longer than those in the products obtained via melt polycondensation. The morphology of the samples has been interpreted as determined by the different structure of the copolymers obtained by both procedures. Received: 3 April 1996 Accepted: 15 August 1996     

偏氯乙烯-氯乙烯悬浮共聚物的结晶与熔融性能

研究了聚合温度、共聚物组成、低分子助剂用量等对偏氯乙烯 (VDC) 氯乙烯 (VC)悬浮共聚树脂的结晶度、熔融峰温度的影响 ,并用Florry的聚合物熔点降低理论预测共聚树脂熔点随共聚组成、低分子助剂用量的变化规律 ,为VDC VC悬浮共聚树脂的合成工艺条件和加工性能的改善提供理论基础 .     

How did we find the rigid amorphous phase?

The first experimental evidence of the existence of the rigid amorphous phase was reported by Menczel and Wunderlich [1]: when trying to clarify the glass transition characteristics of the first main chain liquid crystalline polymers [poly(ethylene terephthalate-co-p-oxybenzoate) with 60 and 80 mol% ethylene terephthalate units] [2], the absence of the hysteresis peak at the lower temperature glass transition became evident when the sample of this copolymer was heated much faster than it had previously been cooled. Since this glass transition involved the ethylene terephthalate-rich segments of the copolymer, we searched for the source of the absence of the hysteresis peak in PET. There, the gradual disappearance of the hysteresis peak with increasing crystallinity was confirmed [1]. At the same time it was noted that the higher crystallinity samples showed a much smaller ΔC _p than could be expected on the basis of the crystallinity calculated from the heat of fusion (provided that the crystallinity concept works). Later it was confirmed that the hysteresis peak is also missing at the glass transition of nematic glasses of polymers. When checking other semicrystalline polymers, the sum of the amorphous content calculated from the ΔC _p at the glass transition, and the crystallinity calculated from the heat of fusion was far from 100% for a number of semicrystalline polymers. For most of these polymers, the sum of the amorphous content and the crystalline fraction was 0.7, meaning that ca. 30% rigid amorphous fraction was present in these samples after a cooling at 0.5 K min⁻¹ rate. Thus, the presence of the rigid amorphous phase was confirmed in five semicrystalline polymers: PET, Nylon 6, PVF, Nylon 66 and polycaprolactone [1]. Somewhat later poly(butylene terephthalate) and bisphenol-A polycarbonate [3] were added to this list.     

Synthesis,physical characterization,and acetone sorption kinetics in random copolymers of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate)

Random copolymers of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) were synthesized by melt condensation. In a series of thin, solvent cast films of varying PEN content, acetone diffusivity and solubility were determined at 35°C and an acetone pressure of 5.4 cm Hg. The kinetics of acetone sorption in the copolymer films are well described by a Fickian model. Both solubility and diffusivity decrease with increasing PEN content. The acetone diffusion coefficient decreases 93% from PET to PET/85PEN, a copolymer in which 85 weight percent of the dimethyl terephthalate in PET has been replace by dimethyl naphthalate 2,6-dicarboxylate. The acetone solubility coefficient in the amorphous regions of the polymer decreases by approximately a factor of two over the same composition range. The glass/rubber transition temperatures of these materials rise monotonically with increasing PEN content. Copolymers containing 20 to 80 wt % PEN are amorphous. Samples with <20% or >80% PEN contain measurable levels of crystallinity. Estimated fractional free volume in the amorphous regions of these samples is lower in the copolymers than in either of the homopolymers. Relative free volume as probed by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) decreases systematically with increasing PEN content. Acetone diffusion coefficients correlate well with PALS results. Infrared spectroscopy suggests an increase in the fraction of ethylene glycol units in the trans conformation in the amorphous phase as the concentration of PEN in the copolymer increases. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 2981–3000, 1998     

共聚聚醚酯酰胺的多重转变及其相态结构

Segmented polyesteramides have been synthesized from N,N'-bis（p-carbomethoxybenzoy）butanediamine（T4T）as crystalline segments and mixture of poly（tetramethylene oxide）with the average molecular weight 1000（PTMO1000）and 1,5-pentanediol（PDO）as soft segments. The polymerization was carried out in the melt at 250℃ for 1-2 h while vacuum was applied. The chemical composition of the copolymer was measured by H1-NMR. The melting behavior of the copolymers was studied by the differential scanning calorimeter. The dynamic mechanical properties were investigated on injection moulded bars by means of dynamic mechanical analysis. It was found that the copolymers with more than 40% molar ratio PDO showed two glass transition temperatures and two melting temperatures. The glass transition temperatures are independent of composition,and thus two fully phaseseparated amorphous phases are present. The melting temperatures change with PDO content. The amount of PDO has an effect on both TmA and TmB . TmA is attributed to the lamella consisting of extended T4T segments,while TmB results from the much thicker lamella consisting of both extended T4T and PDO segments. It is also possible that some PDO is present in the interphase as adjacent re-entry groups. So the resultant copolymer shows that a complex system,two crystalline phases,two amorphous phases and an interphase are involved in the copolymer. The undercooling for these copolymers is small,which means that these segmented copolymers crystallize fast.