Influence of annealing and chain defects on the melting behaviour of poly(vinylidene fluoride)

The use of correlation functions to obtain the morphological parameters of crystalline-amorphous two-phase lamellar systems is critically reviewed and extended. It is shown that processing of the experimental SAXS-patterns only significantly affects the curvature of the autocorrelation triangle and that the parameters of the corresponding ideal two-phase structure can be determined independently of the data processing procedure. The methods to be used depend on the normalization of the correlation function. The validity of the formulation is illustrated for a sample of linear polyethylene, cooled and heated at 10°C per min. Crystallite thickening during crystallization and surface melting during heating are observed. The overall crystallinity and the fraction of semi-crystalline stacks during crystallization and melting are determined quantitatively as a function of temperature using the total scattering power of the corresponding ideal two-phase structure, correlation functions, and a scaling procedure. Absolute intensities are not required. The SAXS results are confirmed by independent techniques (DSC, WAXD, and SALLS). During crystallization, amorphous regions are present outside the semi-crystalline regions because growing spherulites do not fill space completely. During melting, larger amorphous regions develop in the spherulites because of the complete melting of stacks. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 1715–1738, 1999

Use of SAXS and linear correlation functions for the determination of the crystallinity and morphology of semi-crystalline polymers. Application to linear polyethylene

Supermolecular structure and thermal properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate)/lignin composites

Poly(ethylene oxide)/poly(methyl methacrylate) blends: Influence of tacticity of poly(methyl methacrylate) on blend structure and miscibility

Morphological and structural characterization of polypropylene/conductive graphite nanocomposites

In this investigation on samples of high- and low-density polyethylene and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, crystallinities ϕW and crystalline densities ρcW were obtained with the aid of wide-angle x-ray scattering (WAXS) methods. From small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) the following characteristics were obtained either directly or by combination with the WAXS data: values, or limiting values, of the crystallinity ϕS; crystal densities ρcS; thicknesses of the diffuse boundary layer; number-average thicknesses of the crystalline and amorphous layers; and both number and weight averages of the long periods. It was shown that a discrepancy between ϕS and ϕW cannot be attributed to the occurrence of large amorphous regions outside the regular stacks of lamellae; the data were reconciled by assuming that the WAXS crystallinities pertain to the cores of the crystalline lamellae, whereas part of the diffuse boundary layers is comprised in the values of ϕS. The ρcW and ρcS data of the nonlinear samples show systematic differences, which were attributed to partial incorporation of side groups in the crystalline regions at a concentration estimated to be of the order of 20–40% of the overall concentration. With increasing side-group concentration, the thickness of the core of the crystalline lamellae was found to approach the average length of the linear chain segments between side groups. On the basis of these observations a scheme for the crystallization of nonlinear polyethylene is proposed according to which a number of side groups is encapsulated by the growing crystal. The data can be explained by assuming that all chains, offered at a crystal face where growth takes place, crystallize directly, irrespective of whether the crystallizing stem carries a side group. Further crystallization would then proceed by chain folding at both ends of the first stem, until a noncrystallizable unit is met. In this scheme, allowance is made for about half the stems in the crystals to be connected by folds; this is required in view of the “overcrowding” effect. Finally, the effect of cooling rate and molecular weight on the thicknesses of the crystalline and amorphous layers is discussed, and differences between the amorphous densities of high-and low-density polyethylene are noted.

An x‐ray diffraction study of nonlinear polyethylene. I. Room‐temperature observations

A method is presented for obtaining from the zeroth-order peak in small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns the weight average of the thickness C of crystalline lamellae in polymers close to the melting point. The method fails if a first-order peak can be discerned to be superimposed on the zeroth-order peak. The method was applied, together with the one described in Part I of this series for obtaining the number average of C, to three polyethylene samples of different side-group content which were heated to temperatures close to the melting point. While heating always causes an increasing number of lamellae to melt, a linear sample also shows pronounced thickening of the remaining lamellae. This effect, however, decreases with increasing side-group content, and is virtually absent in a vinyl acetate copolymer containing 53 side groups per 1000 C atoms. A qualitative explanation for the role of the side groups in limiting the crystal thickening processes is put forward. By comparing results obtained after isothermal annealing and during isothermal crystallization from the melt it is concluded that at temperatures close to the melting point the polymers approach a final state which no longer depends on the thermal history of the sample.

C. G. Vonk

Papers

An x‐ray diffraction study of nonlinear polyethylene. I. Room‐temperature observations

An x-ray diffraction study of nonlinear polyethylene. II. Small-angle scattering observations near the melting point