Macromolecules, 2018, vol 51, 2, pp. 497-503
DOI:10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01943
Abstract
The syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) γ-to-α/β phase transition was investigated using temperature-dependent synchrotron wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurement. The sPS γ form samples, which were obtained from acetone solvent induced crystallization followed by annealing at various temperatures (Ta), exhibited a regular manner on the selection of the α or β crystal modification during the phase transition process. As the Ta was increased from 25 to 150 °C, the weight fraction of β form in bulk sPS decreased from 55% to 0%, but that of the α form increased from 45% to 100%. In other words, the α form became the dominating crystalline modification at higher Ta. The lamellar thickness (dc) of the γ form at the initial state (before heating) ranged from 4.4 to 5.8 nm, and the weight crystallinity (Xc) was between 0.52 and 0.64. However, the dc values of the γ form at the final state (before γ-to-α/β phase transition) were very close for the samples pretreated at different Tas, which were in the range 7.0–7.4 nm. Therefore, the most plausible interpretation for the crystal modification selection during the γ-to-α/β phase transition was that the nucleation of β form was suppressed totally in the γ form with higher initial dc value (>5.8 nm). With the elevated Ta and increase of initial dc, the promoted nucleation of α form in the γ form resulted in the enhanced growth of the α crystalline phase during the γ-to-α/β phase transition. As a result, after the phase transition the crystalline phase in bulk sPS had a gradually increased weight fraction of the α form and turned out to be pure α form when Ta was increased from 25 to 150 °C.
