| Abstract: | A phenomenological theory is presented to extend the method of reduced variables for the effects of both temperature and changing degree of crystallinity on the linear viscoelastic properties of solutions of crystalline polymers. The vertical and the horizontal shift factors, which are both obtainable in the course of analysis of the experimental data, are correlated with the concentration of the solution and the volume fraction of the crystalline phase, and the fractional free volume of the system, respectively. Dynamic mechanical properties of a gel of cellulose nitrate (nitrogen content, 12.6%) in diethyl phthalate with a nominal concentration of 18% by weight were obtained in the transition region from glasslike to rubberlike consistency and also in the rubbery plateau region by employing the Fitzgerald apparatus and a freely oscillating torsion pendulum over the temperature range from ?49 to 65°C. Application of the new reduction method to the experimental data was found to be quite successful, and it was shown that in general the degree of crystallinity in the system (and hence also the concentration of polymer in the amorphous phase) can depend on both temperature and thermal history. The dynamic mechanical data of a gel of different nominal concentration (23% by weight) previously obtained by Plazek were reanalyzed in terms of the method herein given. |
