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Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Diblock Copolymers Based on 2,2‐Dimethyltrimethylene Carbonate and ε ‐Caprolactone
Author(s) -
Baiardo Massimo,
Alfonso Giovanni C.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3935(20010801)202:12<2509::aid-macp2509>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - copolymer , trimethylene carbonate , monomer , materials science , crystallization , polymer chemistry , carbonate , polymer , caprolactone , ultimate tensile strength , chemical engineering , glass transition , composite material , engineering , metallurgy
Tri( sec ‐butoxyaluminium) [Al(O sec ‐Bu) 3 ]‐initiated copolymerization of 2,2‐dimethyl trimethylene carbonate (DTC) with ε ‐caprolactone (CL) by stepwise addition of the monomers leads to high‐molecular weight block copolymers of the AB diblock type. By changing the amount of initiator and the molar ratio of the monomers, several diblock copolymers were prepared having either the same composition with different overall molecular weight or the same PDTC block length with various compositions. The thermal and mechanical properties of the copolymers were studied with the aim of assessing their dependence on molecular characteristics. Ageing time at room temperature was found to have a remarkable effect on tensile modulus and on melting of the ordered PDTC phases. This behavior has been attributed to mutual hindrance of the blocks on their crystallization and to a solid‐solid polymorphic transformation taking place in the crystalline PDTC microphases.