Issue 91, 2015

Correlation between nucleation, phase transition and dynamic melt-crystallization kinetics in PAni/PVDF blends

Abstract

In this study, polyaniline (PAni)/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) blends of different compositions were prepared by in situ chemical polymerization of aniline in a mixture of PVDF and dimethylformamide (DMF). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermo-gravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were utilized to understand the effect of different amounts of in situ PAni loading on the crystalline structure, phase transition and dynamic melt-crystallization kinetics of PVDF. The images for morphology obtained using scanning electron microscopy and polarizing optical microscopy also provided the confirming evidences. FT-IR studies revealed that the transition of the crystalline structure (from β- to α-phase) of pure PVDF during recrystallization is hindered by the incorporation of PAni within the matrix. The dynamic crystallization kinetics data were analysed with different macroscopic models to describe the polymer crystallization, and the parameters obtained from the analyses were correlated with the structural evidence to verify their applicability for the systems under investigation. Values for the effective activation energy (EX) of the crystallization process of PVDF and its blends were calculated by the differential isoconversional methods of Friedman. It was observed that, although PAni acted as an effective nucleating agent to induce a great number of heterogeneous nuclei within the blends, it actually delayed the overall crystallization process. The increased values of the crystal growth parameters obtained from the analysis of the temperature-dependent EX by the modified Hoffman–Lauritzen theory also support the above mentioned interpretations.

Graphical abstract: Correlation between nucleation, phase transition and dynamic melt-crystallization kinetics in PAni/PVDF blends

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Aug 2015
Accepted
17 Aug 2015
First published
18 Aug 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 74486-74498

Correlation between nucleation, phase transition and dynamic melt-crystallization kinetics in PAni/PVDF blends

S. Biswas, B. Dutta and S. Bhattacharya, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 74486 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA15989J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements