Melting behavior of polyacrylonitrile copolymers

Summary

The melting behavior of acrylonitrile copolymers, ter- and tetrapolymers was studied in the dry state and in the presence of water. The melting point depression caused by the incorporation of a specific comonomer into the polyacrylonitrile chain was shown to be dependent on the molecular structure of the comonomer. Not all comonomers gave equivalent melting point depressions on a molar basis. The Eby theory of comonomer melting was used to model the melting behavior. This theory assumes that the non-crystallizing (non-AN) comonomers enter the crystal lattice as point defects rather than being relegated to the amorphous phase. An equation was developed for predicting the melting point of copolymers, terpolymers and higher order polymers as a function of the polymer composition and the specific melting point depression constant for each comonomer. The latter constants are derived from the copolymer melting point curves. The equation is applicable to both dry and wet polymers and excellent agreement between the observed and calculated melting points for wet terpolymers and tetrapolymers was observed.