TITLE:
Effect of Curing Poly(p-Phenylene Sulfide) on Thermal Properties and Crystalline Morphologies
AUTHORS:
Sungho Lee, Do-Hwan Kim, Jae-Ha Park, Min Park, Han-Ik Joh, Bon-Cheol Ku
KEYWORDS:
Poly(p-Phenylene Sulfide); Thermal Curing; Non-Isothermal Crystallization; Cross-Linking; Crystalline Morphologies
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.3 No.2,
April
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: Commercial poly(p-phenylene
sulfide) (PPS) was thermally cured, which resulted in an increase of molecular
weight due to cross-linking. Non-isothermal crystallization studies of samples
cured for up to 7 days at 250?C showed a monotonous increase of crystallization
temperature compared to pure PPS. However, a further increase of curing time decreased
the crystallization temperature. The change in the half-crystallization time (t1/2) was similar to the
crystallization temperature. Thus, the cross-linking of PPS affected
crystallization behaviors significantly. To a certain
extent, crosslinks acted as nucleation agents, but excessive cross-linking
hindered the crystallization. Morphologies observed by polarized optical
microscopy suggested that thermal curing for as little as 1 day contributed to
the spherulitic structure having a smaller size, that was not observed with
pure PPS.