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Zhu L, Li J, Li H, Liu B, Chen J, Jiang S. Crystallization and melting of unentangled poly(ε-caprolactone) cycles containing pendants. SOFT MATTER 2023. [PMID: 37470097 DOI: 10.1039/d3sm00591g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/21/2023]
Abstract
The Rouse model provides a basic framework to understand the chain dynamics of polymers, which is confirmed to be more suitable for exploring the linear dynamics of unentangled polymers. The crystalline morphology governed by chain dynamics and crystallization kinetics is expected to differ in linear and cyclic polymers. Cyclic poly(ε-caprolactone)s (c-PCLs) containing two bi-anthracenyl group pendants with molecular weights close to the critical molecular weight (Mc) were synthesized to investigate the chain dynamics based crystallization and melting behavior by DSC, POM, and in situ simultaneous small-angle X-ray scattering/wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) investigations during heating of the isothermally crystallized samples. Double endothermic peaks were observed in the DSC curves with a low heating rate of c-PCLs without entanglement after isothermal crystallization, especially for c-PCLs with Mc. The structure evolution of the crystalline structures observed from the in situ investigations during the heating and double endothermic peaks in DSC heating curves of the c-PCLs indicate the role of pendants in the chain dynamics, which leads to the reorganization of the metastable structures. Banded spherulites of c-PCL without entanglement were observed for the first time, and the uneven growth of spherulites along the radial direction may be caused by the mismatch between chain dynamics and crystallization kinetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liuyong Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Jingqing Li
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Hongfei Li
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China
| | - Binyuan Liu
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, School of Chemical Engineering and Science, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
| | - Jizhong Chen
- School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
| | - Shichun Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
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