Crystallizations of poly(ethylene terephthalate co ethylene isophthalate)

Abstract

Crystallization behaviors of crystallizable poly(ethylene terephthalate co ethylene isophthalate) with different molar ratios of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to polyethylene isophthalate (PEI) were studied both non-isothermally and isothermally by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Avrami and Ozawa plots were used to describe the non-isothermal crystallizations. However, the Avrami treatment cannot predict the mechanisms of non-isothermal crystallizations for the above copolyesters, while the Ozawa explanation can be taken to reveal that the non-isothermal crystallization is dominated by heterogeneous nucleation. The activation energies of crystallization were calculated from the Kissinger equation. The copolyester 90/10 shows synergistic effects on non-isothermal crystallization, in that it has the lowest activation energy of crystallization. Isothermal crystallizations were explained by Avrami plots. From lower degrees of supercooling to higher ones, the crystals of the copolyesters grow from low dimension to multidimensions, but the crystallization rates become lower. The percentage of spherulite growth of the copolyester 100/0 (PET homopolymer) is higher than that of the other copolyesters under the same degree of supercooling. Equilibrium crystallization temperatures (T0c) and melting temperatures (T0m) were postulated respectively. T0c and T0m decrease with the increasing composition of PEI, indicating that the equilibrium crystals of the copolyesters become imperfect. With involvement of PEI, the copolyester is not likely crystallizable perfectly and the crystal becomes less perfect.