Effective improvement in poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) crystallinity by ionization of its polyamide-66 heterogeneous nucleator: The role of ion-dipole interactions

HCl (0.31 mol%) and CaCl2 (2.3 mol%) ionized polyamide (PA)-66's, respectively, are successfully prepared by room-temperature PA-66/HCl and PA-66/CaCl2 solution reactions. The PA-66 ionenes, against PA-66, as a nucleator are used along with cholesteryl nonanoate (CN) as an active plasticizer to advance poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) (PC) crystallization. Relative to the PC/PA-66/CN, the PC/PA-66-HCl/CN crystallizes far more whereas the PC/PA-66-CaCl2/CN almost equally, indicating that the PA-66-HCl heterogeneously nucleates PC crystallization much more effectively than the PA-66-CaCl2. The rationale may be that the strong ion-dipole interactions (IDIs) of the PA-66-HCl's HCl-coordinating amides and PC's carbonates remarkably boost the PC/PA-66-HCl interfacial compatibility, which causes considerably finer, denser PA-66-HCl crystals with significantly enhanced nucleation efficiency. Nevertheless, owing to its greatly larger ion content, the PA-66-CaCl2 seems to have such stronger IDIs with PC that the resulting PC/PA-66-CaCl2 immense compatibility (ie, vastly more, thicker amorphous interlayers) turns to dramatically inhibit PC crystallization despite the nucleation of extremely refined, densified PA-66-CaCl2 crystals.