The absorption band at 1378cm
-1 (due to symmetric deformation of methyl-group) has been used most frequently for the quantitative determination of the branching in polyethylene. But, this method has proved not enough to detemine accurately the degree of branching.
Using various model-substances the absorption coefficients of the hand at 1378cm
-1 were obtained as follows:
Methyl-branching:
k1878=1.83,
R=2.65
(Polymethylene+amorphous Polypropylene)
Ethyl-branching:
k1878=1.21,
R=1.75
(Polymethylene+amorphous Poly-1-butene)
Butyl-branching:
k1378=0.931,
R=1.35
(Polymethylene+amorphous Poly-1-hexene)
Terminal-methyl-group (or Long-branching)
k1378=0.691,
R=1.00
(Polymethylene+
n-Alkane)
where;
k1378=absorption coefficient at 1378cm
-1 band,
R=ratio of absorption coefficients.
Therefore, it was shown that 1378cm
-1 band could be used to determine the degree of branching, when there was only one kind of branching.
Methyl-branching was determined by 1155cm
-1 band due to skeletal-vibration of>CH-CH
3group and the following relation was obtained.
_??_
Ethyl-branching was determined by 762cm
-1 band due to rocking of methylene group and the following relation was obtained.
_??_
Terminal-methyl-group and long-branching were determined by the following equation using the absorbances at 1378cm
-1, 1155cm
-1 and 762cm
-1.
_??_
where;
D1378: absorbance at 1378cm
-1 band
D1155: absorbance at 1155cm
-1 band
D762: absorbance at 762cm
-1 band
t: tnickness of sample in cm
d: density of sample in g per cm
3n: branches per 1000 carbon atoms
Relationships between the crystallinity and the short chain branching were studied using ethylene-propylene-random-copolymers and ethylene-l-butene-random-copolymers.
As the results, the following experimental equations were obtained.
Methyl-branching:
_??_
Ethyl-branching:
_??_
where;
X: crystallinity in %,
M: average molecular weight (×10
-4)
n: branches per 1000 carbon atoms
However, these relations were applied for the following
ranges: 4.0≤
M≤10.0, 1.0<
n≤10.0.
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