TEM studies on single crystal structure of syndiotactic poly(propene-co-butene-1)s

Themorphologies and structures of single crystals of syndiotactic poly(propene-co-1-butene) (PPBU) with 1-butene contents of 2.6, 4.2, 9.9, 16.2, and 47.9 mol % are studied by transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction. The electron diffraction results show that the 1-butene units are included in the crystalline phase of the sPP homopolymer. A small amount of 1-butene (<4.2 mol %) has no significant influence on the antichiral chain packing of sPP. With increasing content of 1-butene units, an increasing packing disorder is observed in the PPBU copolymers. The antichiral packing model is, however, always the predominant chain packing structure of the copolymers with the analyzed composition. Bright-field electron microscopy observation shows that the PPBU single crystals exhibit always regular rectangular or lathlike shapes with preferred growth direction along their crystallographic b-axes owing to their packing features. The incorporated 1-butene units influence the crystallization behavior of sPP distinctly. With the increase of the 1-butene units, the aspect ratio of the single crystals increases. Furthermore, the typical transverse microcracks and ripples of the highly stereoregular sPP are no more so prominent for the copolymers. The microcracks are occasionally observed in the single crystals of copolymers with low 1-butene content (less than or equal to4.2 mol %), while transverse ripples are only seen in the crystals of the copolymer having a 1-butene content of 9.9 mol %. With a further increase in the content of 1-butene units, the copolymers behave like the low stereoregular sPP, where neither cracks nor ripples are observed any more.