Preparation and crystallization kinetics of polyesteramide based on poly(L-lactic acid)

Abstract

Using the melt polycondensation method, a polyesteramide was prepared based on poly(L-lactic acid) prepolymer and poly(ϵ-caprolactam) prepolymer and was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 1H-NMR. Isothermal crystallization behavior at different temperatures and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics at different cooling rates were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics parameters were obtained using the Mo, Ozawa and Jeziorny methods. It was found that the increased cooling rates led to the broadening of the polyesteramide crystallization peaks and their shift toward lower temperatures. Mo and Jeziorny methods were found to be more suitable than the Ozawa method for the analysis of this system, as shown by the comparison these non-isothermal crystallization analysis methods. In addition, the values of activation energy of non-isothermal crystallization for polyesteramide obtained by the Kissinger and Takhor methods were-155.96 and-149.12 kJ/mol, respectively.