| Abstract: | Various copolyamides of long repeating chain units were prepared from hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and p-xylylenediamine (PXDA) with aliphatic dicarboxylic acids of three structural types: α,ω-alkanedioic, α,ω-oxaalkanedioic, and α,ω-thiaalkanedioic acids. Both binary and ternary combinations of these dicarboxylic acids having the same number of chain atoms with the diamine afforded highly crystalline copolyamides. In all cases of these copolymers, the plots of the melting points versus the compositions are expressed by linear relations, even in the ternary systems. For example, the melting points of the copolyamides of HMDA with 6-oxaundecanedioic and 6-thiaundecanedioic acids are practically unchanged in all ranges of composition. The same relation is also observed in the corresponding copolyamides of PXDA. The relation between the densities and the composition is plotted with good linearity in every case. From x-ray examination, the lattice spacings of each copolyamide are ascertained to be unchanged by the composition. These results reveal that methylene, ether, and thioether linkages are in the relation of isomorphous replacements for each other in these copolyamide systems. Moreover, the linear relationship between the melting point and the composition is explained by assuming that the entropy of fusion in these copolyamides changes linearly according to the change of the composition. |
