Crystallization and orientation behaviors of poly(vinylidene fluoride) in the oriented blend with nylon 11

Oriented films of nylon 11/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) blend were prepared by uniaxially stretching the melt-mixed blends. The drawn films of fixed length were heat-treated at 170 degreesC for 5 min to melt the PVDF component, followed by quenching in ice water or isothermal crystallization at various temperatures. The crystal forms and orientation textures of the obtained samples were studied using wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). It was found that PVDF can crystallize into both alpha and beta forms in the nylon 11/PVDF blends, and that the content of the beta form increases with increasing crystallization temperature above 120 degreesC. The orientation behavior of the alpha-form PVDF was observed to be dependent on the crystallization conditions: c-axis orientation to the stretching direction was produced for the sample crystallized below 50 degreesC; the a-axis of alpha crystals was tilted from the stretching direction when PVDF was crystallized at about 75 degreesC; the parallel orientation of the a-axis to the stretching direction becomes dominant at higher crystallization temperatures (above 100 degreesC). In contrast, the beta crystalline form maintains the c-axis orientation irrespective of crystallization temperature. It was shown by the confocal laser scanning microscopy that cylindrical domains of PVDF were dispersed in the oriented matrix of nylon 11. The mechanism for the formation of the unique orientation textures is discussed in detail. It was proposed that the a-axis orientation is a result of the trans-crystallization of PVDF in the cylindrical domains confined by the oriented matrix of nylon 11. The crystallization kinetics, WAXD analysis, and morphology studies preferred the trans-crystallization mechanism. The mechanical properties of the as-drawn and heat-treated samples were measured not only in the stretching direction but also in the direction perpendicular to it. It was found that the heat-treated samples show slightly lower tensile strength, but more elongation at the break in the two directions than the as-drawn samples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.