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

Ionized polyamide (PA)-66 was successfully prepared at room-temperature using HCl (0.31 mol%) and CaCl 2 (2.3 mol%), respectively. The PA-66 ionenes, compared with the non-ionized PA-66, are used as a nucleator along with cholesteryl nonanoate (CN) as an active plasticizer to improve poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) (PC) crystallization. The results show the PA-66-HCl heterogeneously nucleates PC more effectively than the PA-66-CaCl 2 . The possible rationale is that the strong ion-dipole interactions (IDIs) of the PA-66-HCl remarkably boost the PC/PA-66-HCl interfacial compatibility, which results in the formation of considerably finer and denser PA-66-HCl crystals with significantly enhanced nucleation efficiency. However, owing to its higher ion content, the PA-66-CaCl 2 seems to have much stronger IDIs with PC that the resulting compatibility (i.e., thicker amorphous interlayers) dramatically inhibits PC crystallization.