Pendant Affected Crystallization Behaviors of Cyclic Poly(epsilon-caprolactone)

摘要

The topology of macromolecules is an important concept of polymer science, and cyclic polymers are the simplest model for studying the effects of topology. To explore the topological effects on crystallization behaviors of cyclic poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), the cyclic and linear PCLs with anthracene groups in the main chain were used to investigate the crystallization behavior as PCL necklace with pendant and PCL asalato. Polarizing optical microscopy showed spherulite growth, and in situ wide-angle X-ray scattering or differential scanning calorimetry characterized crystallization behaviors indicated that the PCL necklace with pendants crystallize more slowly than the PCL asalato with similar molecular weight. The zero spherulite growth temperature T-zg of the PCL pendants and the asalatos is the same. It is proposed that the slower crystallization rate of the cyclic PCLs is based on the slower chain conformation adjustments to form mesophases prior to crystal formation during crystallization, and controlled by the slower chain diffusion resulting from the presence of the large anthracene groups in the molecular chains.