Phase behavior of crystalline blends of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and of random fluorinated copolymers of tetrafluoroethylene

✍ Scribed by Rachele Pucciariello; Carmela Angioletti

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 256 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-6266
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0488(19990401)37:7<679::aid-polb19>3.0.co;2-k

✦ Synopsis

In the present article, we investigate by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) the thermal behavior (melting, crystallization, and crystal-crystal transitions) far from equilibrium of blends constituted of two crystalline polymers. In particular, the following blends are examined: PTFE-PFMVE, PTFE-FEP, and FEP-PFMVE where PTFE is poly(tetrafluoroethylene), PFMVE is poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-perfluoromethylvinylether), and FEP is poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-hexafluoropropylene). The two last ones are random tetrafluoroethylene copolymers with small amounts of comonomer.

Our results indicate that, under the experimental investigated conditions, the blends containing PTFE do not give cocrystallization on cooling from the melt, although under very rapid crystallization conditions, quenching, the presence of the copolymer would seem to slightly influence PTFE crystallization (lower peak temperatures are observed for the crystalline transitions and the melting with respect to those of the neat homopolymer). The behavior of the FEP-PFMVE blend is completely different; in fact, our results indicate the occurrence of cocrystallization, then miscibility in the crystalline phase, for almost all compositions and all investigated experimental conditions.