Thermal behaviour of nylon 6-poly (ether-esteramide) block copolymers

Abstract

Block copolymers have been produced by anionic polymerization of caprolactam with end-functionalized soft-block components derived from polymeric polyols. This method of synthesis gives rise to linear segmented block copolymers with alternating polyether soft blocks and polyamide hard blocks. Copolymers with 10–50% w/w of polyether polyol prepolymer have been the particular focus of attention in this work because of their better physical integrity than copolymers of other compositions. Their phase inversion and morphology/property relationships have been examined by means of differential thermal calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). In this work, the polymers have been hand-cast, but the materials do find application in the reaction injection moulding field.