Rheological and chemorheological studies of cyclic aryl ether ketone and aryl ether thioether ketone oligomers containing the 1,2-dibenzoylbenzene moiety

Abstract

The melt stability, shear rate, and temperature dependence of steady-state shear viscosity of molten cyclic aryl ether ketone and thioether ketone oligomers containing the 1,2-dibenzoylbenzene moiety have been investigated. The isothermal chemorheology of the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic oligomers 4 and 9 in the presence of a nucleophilic initiator was also conducted. The cyclic aryl ether ketone oligomers are thermally stable in the melt, and their melt viscosity is several orders of magnitude lower than their high molecular weight linear counterparts. At a given temperature, the steady-state shear viscosity of the molten cyclics initially undergoes shear thinning as the shear rate increases, and once the shear rate is above 10 s -1 , the molten cyclic oligomers behave like Newtonian fluids. For the amorphous cyclic oligomers studied, the steady-state shear viscosity at 100 s -1 at a given temperature only depends on their glass transition temperature. The cyclic aryl thioether ketone oligomers are thermally unstable in the melt and undergo ring-opening polymerization in the absence of an initiator to form high molecular weight linear polymers with a concomitant rapid increase in viscosity. The rate of change in viscosity increases with temperature and is promoted by the addition of a catalytic amount of elemental sulfur or a disulfide such as 2,2-dithiobis(benzothiazole). It is hypothesized that the ring-opening polymerization is initiated by the in situ generated thiyl radical(s) and proceeds via a free-radical route.