Role of superheated water in the dissolution and perturbation of hydrogen bonding in the crystalline lattice of polyamide 4,6

Hydration, Refinement, and Dissolution of the Crystalline Phase in Polyamide 6 Polymorphs for Ultimate Thermomechanical Properties

Timescales of polyamide 6 melt-shaping technologies, relative to the dynamics of conformational rearrangements upon crystallization, challenge the formation of the most thermodynamically favorable chain packing and thus optimum performance. In this publication, we make use of the mediation of hydrogen bonding by water molecules in the superheated state of water, i.e., above 100 °C in a closed environment, in the structural refinement of polyamide 6 for enhanced thermomechanical performance. The paper addresses dissolution and (re)crystallization of different polyamide 6 polymorphs in the superheated state of water by time-resolved simultaneous small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering and solid-state ¹H NMR spectroscopy and the effect on mechanical properties. The experiments reveal that upon heating in the superheated state of water, the pseudo-hexagonal phase dissolves at relatively low temperature and instantly crystallizes in a defected monoclinic phase that successively refines to a perfected monoclinic structure. The dissolution temperature of the pseudo-hexagonal phase of polyamide 6 is found to be dependent on the degree of crystal perfection originating from conformational disorder and misalignment of hydrogen bonding in the lattice, retrospectively, to the Brill transition temperature. The perfected monoclinic phase below the dissolution temperature can be preserved upon cooling but is plasticized by hydration of the amide moieties in the crystalline phase. The removal of water from the hydrated crystals, in the proximity of Brill transition temperature, strengthening the hydrogen bonding, occurs. Retrospectively, the most thermodynamically stable crystallographic phase is preserved and renders an increase in mechanical properties and dimensional stability of the product. The insight obtained on the influence of superheated water on the structural refinement of imperfected crystallographic states assists in polyamide 6 postprocessing strategies for enhanced performance.

Tentative Confinement of Ionic Liquids in Nylon 6 Fibers: A Bridge between Structural Developments and High-Performance Properties

A reversible confinement of ionic liquid (IL) among the amide segments has been carried out for the preparation of high-modulus and high-strength aliphatic semicrystalline nylon 6 fibers. In this research work, the suppression or the weakening of the hydrogen bonds during the conventional low-speed melt spinning process is followed by a hot-drawing stage and a subsequent IL extraction of the IL out of the 2% wt IL-confined fibers and an immediate thermal stabilization process for the improvement of the properties of the pristine nylon 6 fibers. The resulted crystal structural developments of the IL-confined fibers are attributed to ultimate molecular orientations, which have contributed to the developments of the overall fiber properties. Here, the influences of the IL on the γ and the α crystal phases, the γ-α transition, the morphological properties, and the tensile properties are investigated. The FTIR reported, experimentally, additional peaks at 1237 cm^-1 for the γ crystal phase and at 1417 and 1476 cm^-1 for the α crystal phase, in conformity with the theoretical computations. The XRD demonstrated that the conventional low-speed melt spinning can successfully be used to prepare as-spun IL-confined fibers having highly improved properties. The so prepared as-spun IL-confined fibers are found to have a γ phase structure that has a small crystal size and high crystal perfections. Fortunately, the γ-to-α crystal phase transition for the IL-confined nylon 6 fibers can be acquired during the hot-drawing stage (stress-induced phase transformation). Furthermore, the IL extraction process followed by a thermal stabilization process, interestingly, has led to significant increases in both of the tensile strengths and the tensile moduli of the reverted nylon 6 fibers. The values that are found are 8.46 cN/dtex for the tensile strength and 39.09 cN/dtex for the tensile modulus. The structure-property relationships between the IL-confined and the reverted nylon 6 fibers have also been discussed.

New Solvent for Polyamide 66 and Its Use for Preparing a Single-Polymer Composite-Coated Fabric

Polyamides (PAs) are one of the most important engineering polymers; however, the difficulty in dissolving them hinders their applications. Formic acid (FA) is the most common solvent for PAs, but it has industrial limitations. In this contribution, we proposed a new solvent system for PAs by replacing a portion of the FA with urea and calcium chloride (FAUCa). Urea imparts the hydrogen bonding and calcium ion from the calcium chloride, as a Lewis acid was added to the system to compensate for the pH decrease due to the addition of urea. The results showed that the proposed solvent (FAUCa) could readily dissolve PAs, resulting in a less decrease in the mechanical properties during the dissolution. The composite prepared using the FAUCa has almost the same properties as the one prepared using the FA solution. The solution was applied on a polyamide 66 fabric to make an all-polyamide composite-coated fabric, which then was characterized. The FAUCa solution had a higher viscosity than the one prepared using the neat FA solvent, which can be an advantage in the applications which need higher viscosity like preparing the all-polyamide composite-coated fabric. A more viscous solution makes a denser coating which will increase the water /gas tightness. In conclusion, using the FAUCa solvent has two merits: (1) replacement of 40% of the FA with less harmful and environmentally friendly chemicals and (2) enabling for the preparation of more viscous solutions, which makes a denser coating.

Progress in semicrystalline heat-resistant polyamides

For the past decade, market demands for semicrystalline heat-resistant polyamides (HPAs) with excellent performance and significantly improved heat-resistant temperature has grown rapidly, and they are widely used in the electronic and electrical industry, as light-emitting diodes and in the automobile field (as metal replacements). Industrialized HPAs to date, include PA46, PA6T copolyamides, PA9T and PA10T. Other HPAs being researched include full aliphatic HPA, PA5T, long carbon chain HPA, PXD10 and alicyclic HPA. This review addresses progress in HPAs, especially the properties of HPA, patents analysis and polymerization processes.

Preparation of Bio-Based Polyamide Elastomer by Using Green Plasticizers

The purpose of this work was to study the effects of three green plasticizers H₂O, glycerol, and soybean oil, on the properties of bio-based BDIS polyamides. The BDIS polyamides synthesized from the following biomass monomers: 1,4-butanediamine (BD), 1,10-decanediamine (DD), itaconic acid (IA), and sebacic acid (SA). It is interesting to note that the amorphous BDIS (IA-80%) polyamide was changed from the glassy state to the rubbery state after water soaking and induced crystallization at the same time. The H₂O-plasticized non-crosslinked BDIS (IA-80%) polyamides can be very useful for the preparation of physical water gel. The glycerol- and soybean oil-plasticized BDIS (IA-80%) polyamides displayed excellent toughness. The plasticized BDIS (IA-80%) polyamides were characterized by Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical testing, and X-ray diffraction (XRD).

Self-assembling process of Oxalamide compounds and their nucleation efficiency in bio-degradable Poly(hydroxyalkanoate)s

One of the key requirements in semi-crystalline polyesters, synthetic or bio-based, is the control on crystallization rate and crystallinity. One of the limiting factors in the commercialization of the bio-based polyesters, for example polyhydroxyalkanoates synthesized by bacteria for energy storage purposes, is the slow crystallization rate. In this study, we show that by tailoring the molecular structure of oxalamide compounds, it is possible to dissolve these compounds in molten poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), having a hydroxyvalerate co-monomer content of less than 2 mol%. Upon cooling the polymer melt, the homogeneously dispersed oxalamide compound crystallizes just below the melting temperature of the polymer. The phase-separated compound reduces the nucleation barrier of the polymer, thus enhancing the crystallization rate, nucleation density and crystallinity. The findings reported in this study provide a generic route for the molecular design of oxalamide-based compounds that can be used for enhancing nucleation efficiency of semi-crystalline bio-based polyesters.

Erasing conformational limitations in N,N'-1,4-butanediyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) crystallization from the superheated state of water

Aliphatic polyamides consist of regularly distributed amide moieties located in an aliphatic chain, off which the segment length can be varied. The crystallization and hence the eventual performance of the material can be tailored by changing the aliphatic lengths, and thus the hydrogen bonding density and the directional chemical positioning of the amide motifs. In this paper, N,N'-1,4-butanediyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) crystallized either from the melt or from the superheated state of water is investigated. A comparison with N,N'-1,2-ethanediyl-1,2-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) reveals the role of the hydrogen bonding density on the accommodation of water molecules in amide based crystals grown from the superheated state of water. However, wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and solid state 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy reveal hydrogen bonding between the amide planes, while aliphatic polyamides and N,N'-1,2-diethyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) feature hydrogen bonds that reside within the amide plane only. As a consequence, the role of N,N'-1,4-butanediyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) crystals as a model system for polyamide 4Y polymers is questionable. However, the thermodynamic and structural behavior as function of temperature is determined by a balance between thermally introduced gauche conformers and hydrogen bonding efficiencies. These crystals enable a thorough investigation in the effect of superheated water on the crystallization of these uniquely hydrogen bonded molecules. Crystallization from the superheated state of water results in denser molecular packing and enhanced hydrogen bonding efficiencies. The induced spatial confinement hinders molecular motion upon heating, and thermodynamically more stable crystals are observed. Although the amide-hydroxyl hydrogen bonded crystals do not favor the accommodation of physically bound water molecules in the lattice, saturation of the amide motifs during crystallization erases conformational restrictions of the planar amide moieties that facilitates maximum hydrogen bonding efficiencies in the eventual lattice.

Influence of superheated water on the hydrogen bonding and crystallography of piperazine-based (Co)polyamides

Here we demonstrate that superheated water is a solvent for polyamide 2,14 and piperazine-based copolyamides up to a piperazine content of 62 mol %. The incorporation of piperazine allows for a variation of the hydrogen bond density without altering the crystal structure (i.e., the piperazine units cocrystallize with the PA2,14 units (Hoffmann, S.; Vanhaecht, B.; Devroede, J.; Bras, W.; Koning, C. E.; Rastogi, S. Macromolecules 2005, 38, 1797-1803). It is shown that the crystallization of PA2,14 from superheated water greatly influences the crystal structure. Water molecules incorporated in the PA2,14 crystal lattice cause a slip on the hydrogen bonded planes, resulting in a coexistence of a triclinic and a monoclinic crystal structure. On heating above the Brill transition, the water molecules exit from the lattice, restoring the triclinic crystal structure. With increasing piperazine content, and hence decreasing hydrogen bond density, the dissolution temperature decreases. It is only possible to grow single crystals from superheated water up to a piperazine content of 62 mol %. For these single crystals, the incorporation of water molecules in the vicinity of the amide group is seen by the presence of COO- stretch vibrations with FTIR spectroscopy. These vibrations disappear on heating above the Brill transition temperature, and the water molecules leave the amide groups. For copolyamides with more than 62 mol % piperazine, no Brill transition is observed, no single crystals can be grown from water, and no water molecules are observed in the vicinity of the amide groups (Vinken, E.; Terry, A. E.; Hoffmann, S.; Vanhaecht, B.; Koning, C. E.; Rastogi, S. Macromolecules 2006, 39, 2546-2552). The high piperazine content (co)polyamides have fewer hydrogen bond donors and are therefore less likely to have interactions with the water molecules. This work demonstrates the relation among the Brill transition, the dissolution of polyamide in superheated water, and its influence on the hydrogen bonds and the amide groups.

Interaction of water with N,N'-1,2-ethanediyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) crystals: a simulation study

Recently it has been shown, using a variety of experimental techniques, that water can be hosted in N,N'-1,2-ethanediyl-bis(6-hydroxy-hexanamide) crystals. It forms stable interactions with the hydroxyl groups at the ends of the molecule, as well as with the amide groups. However, with experimental techniques one can not observe the exact hydrogen bonding geometries of the physically bound water molecules. Here a series of molecular dynamics simulations is presented that provide an atomistically detailed picture of the interactions of water with different parts of the crystals.