Hydrolytic degradation behavior of poly(butylene succinate)s with different crystalline morphologies

Abstract

The effect of crystalline morphology on the hydrolytic degradation behavior of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) in an alkaline solution was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy, gel permeation chromatography, and weight loss measurement. Morphological changes were induced on PBS samples by different thermal treatments (i.e., melt quenching or isothermal crystallization) at a constant overall degree of crystallinity. It was found that even with a similar degree of crystallinity, the hydrolytic degradation rate of an isothermally crystallized sample at 60°C was higher than that of a melt-quenched sample. This was due to the difference in the internal morphology of the spherulites: the internal structure of spherulite in an isothermally crystallized sample consists of coarse and loosely packed fibrils whereas a melt-quenched sample contains finer and tightly packed fibrils. This result suggested that the internal structure of the spherulite of PBS samples plays an important role in the hydrolytic degradation for this experimental condition. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 79: 1025–1033, 2001