EFFECTS OF BRANCHES ON THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF COPOLYMERS BASED ON POLY(e-CAPROLACTONE)

F. LEONARDO REDONDO; MARIO D. NINAGO; AUGUSTO G.O. DE FREITAS; ANDRÉS E. CIOLINO; MARCELO A. VILLAR; CRISTIANO C. GIACOMELLI

Águas de Lindóia

Congreso; 14° CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE POLÍMEROS 14th Brazilian Congress on Polymers; 2017

14° CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE POLÍMEROS

A linear poly(e-caprolactone), PCL, and grafted copolymers based on poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate) and poly(e-caprolactone) were used to study the effect of branches on PCL crystallization process. Copolymers were synthetized by a combination of ring opening polymerization and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, showing molar masses between 32,000 and 46,000 g mol-1 with Mw/Mn lower than 1.19. Isothermal crystallization kinetic was performed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry combining Avrami and Hoffman-Weeks theories. Regarding to Avrami parameters, copolymers exhibited half-life crystallization times 42 times higher than PCL homopolymer and two-dimensional crystallization growth. Finally, by Hoffman-Weeks it was determined that copolymers growing rate values were 51 times higher than PCL values. These results suggest that the interaction of grafted chains could hinder the rearrangement of PCL reducing their final crystallization capacity.