Fabrication and Chemical Crosslinking of Electrospun Trans-polyisoprene Nanofiber Nonwoven

In this work, the optimal electrospinning conditions of trans-polyisoprene （TPI） solutions were evaluated nevertheless its lower glass transition temperature than the room temperature. Subsequently, chemical crosslinking of TPI nonwovens was firstly investigated by vulcanizing at high temperatures in the case of the persistence of nanofiber structure. For this purpose, curing agents of TPI were embedded in TPI nanofibers by co-electrospinning, and then a protect layer was coated on TPI nanofibers by filtering gelatin solution going through TPI nonwoven before the vulcanization at 140-160 ℃. The results showed that the vulcanization of TPI fibrous nonwoven at high temperatures did not destroy the fiber morphology. Interestingly, TPI fibrous nonwovens after vulcanization showed excellent mechanical properties （N17 MPa of tensile strength） that could be comparable to or even higher than that of some bulk rubber materials.

Differential Polymorphic Transformation Behavior of Polybutene-1 with Multiple Isotactic Sequences

For the solid-solid transformation from form Ⅱ to form Ⅰ of isotactic polybutene-1(iPB),the temperature dependence of form Ⅰ nucleation and growth was deemed to control the transformation process.However,the relationship between formⅠ formation and form Ⅱ disappearance in the transformation process is not clear.In this work,the spontaneous crystal transformation from form Ⅱ to Ⅰ of iPB with 81 mol%mmmm sequence concentration is studied firstly by tracking the two processes,the decay of form Ⅱ and the yielding of form Ⅰ in a wide range of temperature spanning from 0℃ to 50℃ and in a long transformation time ranging from 5 min to 65 days with in situ FTIR and WAXD.Unlike the literature reports,the decay rate of form Ⅱ is firstly found to be lower than the yielding rate of form Ⅰ at all studied temperatures,especially at low transition temperature.This is attributed to the amorphous chains which locate near crystal lamella participating into the nucleation of form Ⅱ.The regular chain folding and growth of i PB form Ⅰ from amorphous chains containing short isotactic sequences also lead to an increase in crystallinity of form Ⅰ compared with that of initial form Ⅱ crystallized at 60℃.An increase in the annealing temperature results in decrease in crystallinity and increase in lamellae thickness of i PB formⅠ.

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.