Polymer Bulletin, Vol.57, No.4, 553-561, 2006
Morphology and thermal behavior of MCPA6/SAN blends prepared by anionic ring-opening polymerization of epsilon-caprolactam
In this article, a series of blends of monomer casting polyamide 6 and styrene-co-acrylonitrile (MCPA6/SAN) were prepared by in situ anionic ring-opening polymerization of epsilon-caprolactam (CL). Their morphology and thermal behaviors were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD), respectively. The SAN phase had much finer domain in MCPA6/SAN than that in the polyamide6/SAN (PA6/SAN) blends prepared by melt blending of PA6 and SAN. All the melting and crystallization parameters of MCPA6/SAN blends decreased gradually with the increase of SAN content, while the melting temperature was almost unchanged. These results were due to the hydrolysis reaction of SAN occurred during the anionic polymerization of epsilon-caprolactam (CL). In addition, WAXD results showed that only alpha crystal forms existed in the MCPA6/SAN blends.