Author(s)

Naofumi Naga^1*, Yuuki Takagi¹, Shogo Urakami¹, Keiichi Noguchi²

¹Department of Applied Chemistry, Material Science Course, College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
²Instrumentation Analysis Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.

The crystallization and crystalline structure of syndiotactic-polypropylene (sPP) and syndiotactic-poly(1-butene) (sPB) blend containing 10 (Bl-10), 25 (Bl-25), 50 (Bl-50), 75 (Bl-75), and 90 (Bl-90) wt% of sPB, have been investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), FT-IR, and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analyses. The melt-crystallization behavior of the blend samples was studied by DSC on the cooling process at constant rates. Bl-50, Bl-75, and Bl-90 showed lower crystallization temperatures than the neat sPP. sPP in Bl-75 showed the lowest crystallization rate among the blend samples. Bl-90 showed a two-phase molten state, and sPP in Bl-90 crystallized via two-stepprocess. Time evolution of FT-IR spectroscopy at room temperature detected conformational transformation of the sPP polymer chain in the blend samples of Bl-50 and Bl-75. The absorption peaks intensity in the FT-IR spectra derived from the helical conformations in the crystalline phase decreased, and the planar zigzag conformations in the amorphous and mesophase phases decreased over the crystallization time. The time evolution of the WAXD profile of Bl-90 indicated that sPP in the blend accelerated the crystallization of sPB. The crystallized Bl-10, Bl-25, and Bl-50 samples showed diffraction peaks in WAXD profiles and melting endothermic peak in DSC profiles derived from only the sPP crystal. The crystallinity and melting temperature of sPP in the crystallized Bl-10, Bl-25, and Bl-50 samples were almost independent of the sPB content. Both the crystalline structure of sPP and sPB were detected in Bl-75 and Bl-90. Bl-75 showed the lowest crystallinity and melting temperature of sPP among the blend samples.

Syndiotactic-Polypropylene, Syndiotactic-Poly(1-Butene), Blend, Crystallization

Naga, N. , Takagi, Y. , Urakami, S. and Noguchi, K. (2014) Crystallization and Crystalline Structure of Syndiotactic Polypropylene and Syndiotactic-Poly(1-Butene) Blend. Open Journal of Polymer Chemistry, 4, 102-114. doi: 10.4236/ojpchem.2014.44012.