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Miscibility and crystallization behaviors of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐11%‐4‐hydroxybutyrate)/Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐33%‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) blends
Author(s) -
Lan Zhiyuan,
Pan Jueyu,
Wang Xiaojuan,
He Jianyun,
Xu Kaitian
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.32999
Subject(s) - miscibility , crystallization , differential scanning calorimetry , crystallite , materials science , poly 3 hydroxybutyrate , glass transition , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , scanning electron microscope , composite material , polymer , thermodynamics , metallurgy , physics , engineering
Biopolyesters poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) with an 11 mol % 4HB content [P(3HB‐ co ‐11%‐4HB)] and a 33 mol % 4HB content [P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB)] were blended by a solvent‐casting method. The thermal properties were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry. The single glass‐transition temperature of the blends revealed that the two components were miscible when the content of P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB) was less than 30% or more than 70 wt %. The blends, however, were immiscible when the P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB) content was between 30 and 70%. The miscibility of the blends was also confirmed by scanning electron microscopy morphology observation. In the crystallite structure study, X‐ray diffraction patterns demonstrated that the crystallites of the blends were mainly from poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) units. With the addition of P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB), larger crystallites with lower crystallization degrees were induced. Isothermal crystallization was used to analyze the melting crystallization kinetics. The Avrami exponent was kept around 2; this indicated that the crystallization mode was not affected by the blending. The equilibrium melting temperature decreased from 144 to 140°C for the 80/20 and 70/30 blends P(3HB‐ co ‐11%‐4HB)/P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB). This hinted that the crystallization tendency decreased with a higher P(3HB‐ co ‐33%‐4HB) content. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011