| Abstract: | The effect of incorporating a nitro side group into the phenylene units of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) on the conformation and crystallizability of this polyester was evaluated. Random poly(ethylene terephthalate‐co‐nitroterephthalate) (PETNT) copolymers containing 5, 10, and 15 mol % nitroterephthalic units were investigated with reference to PET. All the examined copolymers were semicrystalline and were found to adopt the triclinic crystal structure of PET, with the nitrated units being excluded from the crystallites. Both the crystallinity and crystallization rate of PETNT largely decreased with the content of nitrated units, and the O? CH2? CH2? O trans‐to‐gauche conformational ratio increased with crystallization, attaining comparable values for all the compositions. The conformation and crystallinity of isothermally crystallized PET and PETNT samples could be correlated with the size of the crystallites generated in each case. However, a different crystal perfecting mechanism seemed to operate for PET and for the PETNT copolymers when they were subjected to annealing. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 2759–2771, 2002 |
