Conformational Change and Orientation Fluctuations Prior to Crystallization of Crystalline Polysty-renes (FUNDAMENTAL MATERIAL PROPERTIES-Polymer Materials Science)

Abstract

Aiming to clarify the cause of a spinodal decomposition (SD) type microphase separation occuring during the induction period of polymer crystallization, we have made quantitative investigations about the conformational changes using FT-IR spectroscopy as well as the orientation fluctuations of the polymer rigid segments using depolarized light scattering (DPLS) . It is confirmed for syndiotactic and isotactic polystyrenes (sPS and iPS) that during the induction period, the polymer chains first transform partially from the amorpous to the crystalline conformation, involving in the increase of length of the rigid segments, which makes the system unstable to induce the orientation fluctuations of the SD type. Thus, the intensity of orientation fluctuations evloved exponentially with annealing time.