Largely restricted nucleation effect of carbon nanotubes in a miscible poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(butylene succinate) blend

• Published in: Polymer international 2016-12, Vol.65 (12), p.1417-1429
• Main Authors: Mao, Hanjun, Zhang, Tingting, Zhang, Nan, Huang, Ting, Yang, Jinghui, Wang, Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blends; Carbon nanotubes; Crystallization; Fluorides; miscible blend; Nucleation; nucleation effect; Polymer matrix composites; Polyvinylidene fluorides; Surface chemistry
• ISSN: 0959-8103; 1097-0126
• DOI: 10.1002/pi.5197

The crystallization behaviors of miscible poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(butylene succinate) (PVDF/PBS) and its blend composites with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) during non‐isothermal and isothermal processes were investigated. The results showed that CNTs acted as heterogeneous nucleation agents and further improved the nucleation ability of PBS and PVDF in blends. However, compared with the nucleation effects of CNTs in PBS/CNT or PVDF/CNT binary composites, the nucleation effect of CNTs in miscible PVDF/PBS was largely restricted and nucleation efficiency was lowered. A reasonable explanation about the restricted nucleation ability of CNTs was studied from the viewpoint of interfacial interactions between polymer components and CNTs, in which a preferential affinity of CNTs to PBS was found. Further combined with the preparation method, it is proposed that PVDF chains adsorbed on the CNT surface in the master batch were peeled off from the CNTs by incorporated PBS chains, due to the better interaction between PBS and CNTs. Finally, the PVDF chains at the interface were diluted by PBS, and most of the CNT surface was covered by PBS chains, giving rise to the nucleation of PBS on the CNTs. On the other hand, unremoved PVDF still adsorbed on the CNT surface and crystallized. Compared with PVDF/CNT and PBS/CNT binary composites, the nucleation density in the ternary composites was greatly lowered, resulting in restricted nucleation effects of CNTs. On the other hand, the preferable adsorption of PBS on CNTs induced an apparent phase fluctuation in the PVDF/PBS blend composites, which also reflected the selective adsorption of PBS on the CNT surface. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry The crystallization behaviors of miscible blend PVDF/PBS and its composites with CNTs were investigated via non‐isothermal and isothermal processes. Compared with PBS/CNT and PVDF/CNT binary composites, largely restricted nucleation effects of CNTs were found, and the underlying mechanism is discussed on the basis of competition of polymer adsorption on CNTs via the evaluation of interfacial tension.