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Abstract
The effect of shearing on crystallization behavior of a crystalline/crystalline blend, polyoxymethylene [POM]/poly(ethylene oxide) [PEO], was investigated using polarized light microscopy connected with a CSS450 shearing hot-stage, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry [DSC], and x-ray diffraction [XRD]. The experimental results indicated that the shearing made POM and PEO disperse more evenly and increased the inclusion and entanglement effects between the molecular chains of POM and PEO and therefore enhanced the influence of PEO on the crystallization of POM. As a result, the blend sheared at a shear rate of 20 s−1 for 10 min at 160°C formed shish–kebab crystals and produced more interlamellar structures compared with the formation of perforated spherulites in the unsheared blend. Moreover, a more obvious shoulder melting peak of POM appeared in the DSC heating trace and a new diffraction peak occurred at 2θ = 31.7° in the XRD pattern for the sheared POM/PEO [50/50] blend.
Acknowledgment
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, China [Grant No. 50773041].