UCST Type Phase Boundary and Accelerated Crystallization in PTT/PET Blends

Abstract

We investigated the structure development and crystallization kinetics in the blends of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) by polarized optical microscopy and light scattering. The crystallization of the blend was found to be faster and the size of the spherulites was much smaller than those of the neat component polymers by melt crystallization at low temperature of 180 °C. The discontinuous gap of the crystallization time with temperature was seen in the blends, suggesting phase transition at the temperature Ttr; e.g., the Ttr of the 60/40 PTT/PET was 215 °C. The crystallization was accelerated due to enhancement of the nucleation rate, and interconnected tiny spherulites were obtained at the temperature below the Ttr. The accelerated crystallization and the development of the interconnected structure might be attributed to the liquid-liquid phase separation via spinodal decomposition, due to existence of the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) type phase boundary.