Fractionated and Confined Crystallization of Polybutene-1 in Immiscible Polypropylene/Polybutene-1 Blends

In this work, the crystallization of immiscible polypropylene （PP）/polybutene-1 （PB） blends, in particular the effect of crystal morphology of PP （HTC, high Tm component） on the subsequent crystallization behavior of PB （LTC, low Tm component） was studied. Herein, we firstly indicated that PP/PB blends were not completely compatible but characterized as the LCST-like phase diagram above the melting temperature of PP. Crystallization of PP at different crystallization temperatures brought about different PP crystal morphologies and PB was segregated and confined at different locations. Much larger-sized domain of PB component appeared in PP spherulites resulting from the effects of non-negligible phase separation and the slower PP crystallization rate as PP crystallized at high temperature. As temperature continued to fall below Tm of PB, the fractionated and confined crystallization of PB occurred in the framework of PP spherulites, reflected by the decreased crystallization temperature （To） of PB and the formation of form I＇ beside form II. Notably, if PP previously crystallized at high Tc, fractionated crystallization of PB became predominant and confined crystallization of PB became weak due to the much wider droplet-size distribution of PB domains.

Confined Crystallization Behaviors of Cross-linked Comb-like Copolymers

Cross-linked PEG-based copolymers were obtained via synthesis of polyethylene glycol （PEG） and methoxy polyethylene glycol （MPEG） by the bridging and/or cross-linking agent of 2,4-tolylene diisocyanate （TDI） and/or hexamethylene-l,6-diisocyanate homopolymer （HDI trimer）. The effects on the crystallization behaviors of the samples could be found with the changes in molecular weight of MC-PEG and molecular weight of SC-PEG in certain cross-linked density. It is revealed that the samples appear not to crystallize when the molecular weight of MC-PEG and SC-PEG are 1000 g/mol or less than that. The samples begin to crystallize when the molecular weight of either MC-PEG or SC-PEG reaches 2000 g/mol. The crystallinity of crystallized MC-PEG decreases with the increasing molecular weight of uncrystallized SC-PEG and the crystallinity of crystallized SC-PEG declines with the rise of molecular weight of uncrystallizable MC-PEG. The chains of SC-PEG （M_n = 2000 g/mol） can fold and align easilier than those of MC-PEG （M_n = 2000 g/mol）, when the content of PEG is the same.

CRYSTALLIZATION AND MELTING OF POLY(ETHYLENE OXIDE)CONFINED IN NANOSTRUCTURED PARTICLES WITH CROSS-LINKED SHELLS OF POLYBUTADIENE

Small fixed aggregates of a poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polybutadiene diblock copolymer(PEO-b-PB)in THFsolution were obtained by adding a selective solvent for PB blocks,followed by cross-linking the PB shells.Themorphologies of the nanostructured particles with a cross-linked shell were investigated by atomic force microscopy andtransmission electron microscopy.The average behaviors of the PEO crystallization and melting confined within thenanostructured particles were studied by using differential scanning calorimetry experiments.For the deeply cross-linkedsample(SCL-1),the crystallization of the PEO blocks was fully confined.The individual nanoparticles only crystallized atvery low crystallization temperatures(T_cs),wherein the homogenous primary nucleation determined the overallcrystallization rate.For the lightly cross-linked sample(SCL-2),the confinement effect was T_c dependent.At T_c(?)42℃,thecrystallization and melting behaviors of SCL-2 were similar to those of the pure PEO-b-PB diblock copolymer.At T_c>42℃,SCL-2 could form PEO lamellae thicker than those of the pure PEO-b-PB crystallized at the same T_c.