Abstract
The coagulation size of a solvent bound in an isotactic polypropylene (iPP)/o-dichlorobenzene gel was estimated by thermal analysis and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and it was examined with respect to the molecular morphology of the gel. The melting process of the solvent frozen in the iPP/o-dichlorobenzene gel showed an endothermic peak below the melting temperature of pure o-dichlorobenzene. This temperature decrease is closely related to the coagulation size of the freezable bound solvent. The relationship between the decrease in the melting temperature and the coagulation size of o-dichlorobenzene was estimated by using porous silica gel. Then, an equation was applied to estimate the coagulation size of the solvent in the iPP gel. The 20-wt% gel showed a coagulation radius of 6.1 nm, whereas for the 50-wt% gel, the radius decreased to 4.1 nm. Next, a SANS measurement was taken for comparison purposes (to be compared with the coagulation size determined by the thermal analysis). The coagulation dimension was estimated using the scattering profile of iPP/o-dichlorobenzene-d4. The coagulation radius of the freezable bound solvent decreased from 4.8 nm for the 20-wt% gel to 4.0 nm for the 50-wt% gel. This result showed good agreement with the estimations from the thermal analysis.
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This work was partially supported by a grant from the High-Tech Research Center Program for private universities by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
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Fujiwara, N., Tanimura, H., Nakasugi, T. et al. Coagulation dimension of freezable bound solvent in isotactic polypropylene/o-dichlorobenzene gel. Polym J 45, 173–178 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.126
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.126
