Isothermal Crystallization Kinetics of Nylon 10T and Nylon 10T/1010 Copolymers: Effect of Sebacic Acid as a Third Comonomer

Abstract

Nylon 10T and nylon 10T/1010 samples were synthesized by direct melt polymerization. The isothermal crystallization kinetics of nylon 10T and nylon 10T/1010 was investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The crystallization kinetics under isothermal condition has been analyzed by the Avrami equation. It was found that the Avrami equation was well-suited to describe the isothermal crystallization kinetics, combined with the results of the Turnbull-Fisher equation. The values of T _m ⁰ and K _g were obtained by Hoffman-Weeks and Lauritzen-Hoffman equations, respectively. The activation energies for isothermal crystallization of nylon 10T and nylon 10T/1010 were determined using the Arrhenius equation and found to be -123.24 and -81.86 kJ·mol^-1, respectively, which reveals that the crystallization ability of nylon 10T/1010 was lower than that of nylon 10T during the isothermal crystallization process. The crystal morphology was observed by means of polarized optical microscopy (POM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that the addition of sebacic acid comonomer did not change the crystal form of nylon 10T, but significantly increased the number and decreased the size of spherulites.

Keywords

melt polymerization / nylon 10T / nylon 10T/1010 / semiaromatic polyamides / crystallization kinetics / isothermal crystallization