Dependence of Crystallization Behavior of Interacting Telechelic Poly(butylene succinate) Oligomer on Molecular Weight

A large spherulite structure deteriorates the mechanical properties of crystalline polymers, and therefore various methods have been explored to increase primary nucleation density. Recently, chain-end modification has been proposed as an effective approach for regulating polymer crystal nucleation....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crystals (Basel) 2021-12, Vol.11 (12), p.1530
Main Authors: Chen, Cong, Zhang, Xue-Wen, Ye, Hai-Mu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cold
Crystallization
Density
Hydrogen bonds
Mechanical properties
melt memory effect
Molecular structure
Molecular weight
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Nucleation
Oligomers
poly(butylene succinate)
Polymers
Spectrum analysis
Stacks
telechelic polymer
Thermodynamic properties
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A large spherulite structure deteriorates the mechanical properties of crystalline polymers, and therefore various methods have been explored to increase primary nucleation density. Recently, chain-end modification has been proposed as an effective approach for regulating polymer crystal nucleation. However, the relevant nucleation mechanism still requires investigation. Therefore, in this work, 2-ureido-4[1H]-pyrimidinone (UPy) units, which can form stacks via quadruple hydrogen bonds with each other, are introduced as end groups for the preparation of interacting telechelic poly(butylene succinate) (PBS-UPy) oligomers with different molecular weights (Mns). The crystallization, especially the nucleation behavior of PBS-UPy, is studied in detail by comparing with the corresponding pre-polymer, the hydroxyl-terminal PBS (PBS-OH). The thermal properties of PBS-UPy exhibit similar Mn-dependent tendency to those of PBS-OH, but with weaker total crystallization rate. The spherulite growth rate is significantly reduced, whereas the primary nucleation density is highly promoted, after introducing UPy groups. Further investigation reveals that the mechanism of UPy stacks’ influence on nucleation ability changes from inhibition to promotion with respect to Mn. Even under an inhibition of nucleation ability, the final nucleation density is obviously increased because of a significant decline of the growth rate. In addition, the change in the impact of UPy stacks on nucleation ability is speculated to originate from the memory expression feasibility of ordered conformation in the melt during crystallization.
ISSN:2073-4352
2073-4352
DOI:10.3390/cryst11121530