Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.52, No.30, 10198-10205, 2013
Crystallization Kinetics and Morphology of Novel Miscible Crystalline/Amorphous Polymer Blends of Biodegradable Poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene carbonate) and Poly(vinyl phenol)
Biodegradable poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene carbonate) (PBSC) and poly(vinyl phenol) (PVPh) may form novel miscible crystalline/amorphous polymer blends that exhibit a single composition-dependent glass transition temperature and a depression of equilibrium melting point of PBSC in the blends. Relative to neat PBSC, blending with PVPh has not only suppressed the nonisothermal melt crystallization behavior of PBSC at the same cooling rate but also reduced both the overall isothermal melt crystallization rates and spherulitic growth rates of PBSC in the blends at the same crystallization temperature; however, the crystallization mechanism does not change for either neat PBSC or the PBSC/PVPh blends. Neat PBSC and its blends show the same crystal structure. The apparent increase in both long period and amorphous layer thickness values indicates that amorphous PVPh resides in the interlamellar region of PBSC spherulites in the blends.