The Effect of Inclusion of Dichloromethane in the δ-Clathrate Phase of Syndiotactic Polystyrene

Abstract

Inclusion of molecules in the crystalline phases of s-PS induces on the guest long range order and strongly reduces the guest diffusivity and mobility with respect to a random dispersion at the molecular level in polymeric amorphous phases. Moreover, when included in highly oriented s-PS films, the degree of guest orientation is comparable to the host orientation and detailed information on directional properties within molecules can be unambiguously achieved. In this paper, the behavior of dichloromethane in the δ-clathrate phase of syndiotactic polystyrene is studied by combined FTIR and solid state ²H NMR techniques, defining the molecular orientation in the crystalline phase and the constrained reorientational dynamics of the guest molecules in the cavities.

Keywords:

• Host-guest system
• Molecular dynamics
• ²H solid state NMR
• Syndiotactic polystyrene

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Prof. Hans W. Spiess of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and Prof. Alfonso Grassi and Dr. Patrizia Oliva of University of Salerno for useful discussions. Moreover, Dr. Volker Macho is acknowledged for helpful discussion on the simulation of ²H NMR line shapes and his efforts to include these simulations in the upcoming WEBLAB version 5.0.