Annealing of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate blends

Abstract

A blend of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) and polycarbonate with a weight ratio of 50/50 was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dielectric spectroscopy (DS) after melt annealing that enables transesterification. The DSC results show that with increasing the residence time in the melt, the melting temperature and the heat of fusion of PTT crystals decrease. Prolonged thermal treatment at 300 °C gives rise to a copolymer that no longer reveals melting or crystallization. Additional annealing of such samples below the melting temperature of PTT results in restoration of the crystallization ability. The amorphous phase dynamics is studied by means of DS demonstrating that the glass transition relaxations are very sensitive to the crystallinity changes. The random copolymer is characterized by only one α-relaxation indicating a more or less homogeneous amorphous phase. In contrast to this, the physical blend and the block copolymers show two α-relaxation processes attributed to the existence of two amorphous fractions. Analysis of the relaxation process in terms of Vogel–Fucher–Tammann–Hesse model reveals a correlation between the fragility parameter and the extent of trans-reaction. The crystallization kinetics of the blocky copolymer determined from the changes of the dielectric constant with time are discussed and compared with pure PTT.