Role of Poly(butylene fumarate) on Crystallization Behavior of Poly(butylene succinate)

The details of poly(butylene fumarate) (PBF) as highly effective nucleating agent for poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) were systematically studied via X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter, polarized optical microscopy, and atom force microscopy. All results show that PBF can significantly improve the melt-crystallization temperature and the degree of crystallinity of PBS during the nonisothermal crystallization process. Both crystallization time span and spherulitic size of PBS decrease drastically with the addition of a small amount of PBF, which shows that PBF not only enhances the primary nucleation of PBS by epitaxial mechanism, but also greatly accelerates the secondary nucleation during spherulite growth. The secondary nucleation parameters of PBS, K g and G 0, are notably improved just with a small amount of PBF. Furthermore, the appearance of wrinkles on PBF-nucleated PBS ultrathin film visually suggests that PBF indeed affects the subsequent growth behavior, besides the primary nucleation.