By means of differential scanning calolimeter, isotactic polystyrene crystallized in different conditions was studied, and the glass transition temperature was compared to that of atactic polystyrene.
In the thermogram of the sample quenched from the melt (crystallinity
Xc=0), the peak of melting at 225.5-226°C, the exothermic peak in the range from 150°C to 190°C and the glass transition temperature at 83°C were found. No exothermic peak was found in the samples cooled slowly, for example, cooled at 16°C/min from the melt to the room temperature (
Xc=12%) or crystallized at 170°C for 30min (
Xc=30%). In the quenched samples, crystalline patterns observed by X-ray diffractometer equipped with a heating cell appeared from 130°C, so that the exothermic peak in the thermograms was attributed to the cold crystallization.
As the rate of crystallization of polystyrene was rather small, the two peaks, main and sub peaks of melting were observed clearly in the samples crystallized isothermaly from both the melt and the quenched sample in comparison with the other polymers. The temperatures of sub peak of melting were observed slightly above the annealing temperatures. The multiple peaks were obtained easily by the stepwise annealing.
Glass transition temperature of isotactic polystyrene varied from 80°C to 85°C and thermograms near the glass transition were also affected by thermal history. By heattreatment at 70-80°C, endothermic peak of the quenched sample became larger with prolonged treatment in comparison with atactic polystyrene. Double peaks observed in atactic polystyrene which was treated below the temperature of glass transition were not obtained in the case of isotactic polystyrene. It is estimated that the structure of amorphous state was different between the amorphous isotactic polystyrene and the atactic polystyrene. By the heat-treatment near the glass transition temperature, thermal behavior of the samples previously crystallized at 130-190°C were much different from the quenched sample. It is concluded that the structure of amorphous state was affected by the difference in crystalline region which was formed by heat-treatment and observed as melting sub peak in fusion curve.
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