Crystallization kinetics of new copoly(ethylene terephthalate-imide)s

Crystallization kinetics of copoly(ethyleneterephthalate-imide)s (PETIs) of various imide contents were studied by the DSC technique. The results of isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics studies showed a consistent trend in that the crystallization of all copolyesterimides comprised a primary stage and secondary stage, and that the crystallization mechanism was a three-dimensional growth with athermal nucleation. The crystallization rate of PETIs first increased and then decreased as the content of imide units in the copolyesterimides increased. This indicates that the imide units in the copolymer decreased the chain-packing regularity of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and the same units also enhanced the copolymer chain rigidity. The copolyesterimide with 0.2 mol% imide unit content showed a dramatic increase of the crystallization rate, and exhibited the highest crystallization rate of all the studied compositions. Studies of isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics, showed that small amounts of imide units in the the backbone act as nucleating agents during the crystallization process of copolyesterimides.