Terahertz absorption spectra of polyphenylene sulfide sheets with different degrees of crystallinity

Abstract

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), one of the superengineering plastics, is used for various purposes. Since PPS is a crystalline polymer, its various properties depend on its crystallinity. In this paper, the possibility of evaluating the crystallinity of PPS by terahertz (THz) absorption spectroscopy is examined. In addition to THz absorption spectra, X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) were measured on sheets of PPS thermally annealed differently. As a result, it has become clear that sharp absorption peaks appearing at 3.2 and 4.2 THz are well proportional to the crystallinity estimated by XRD. Therefore, THz absorption spectroscopy can be a tool to estimate the crystallinity of PPS.