The crystallization characterization of bulk syndiotactic polystyrene sample: immediate evidence from IR spectroscopy

The crystallization characterization of bulk syndiothactic polystyrene (s-PS) sample is thoroughly studied using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The WAXD is further used to identify the s-PS crystal formation to confirm the specific absorbance in FTIR spectra. Both melt and cold-crystallization behavior are quantitatively determined using FTIR spectra ranging from 870 to 820 cm−1 at 264 °C. Fitting curves to IR spectra provides direct evidence of bulk s-PS crystallization behavior in quantification. The melt-crystallization process yields the β-form only; while the cold-crystallization process yields both the α and the β-form crystal in bulk s-PS sample. The β-form crystal is generated from the phase-transformation of the α-form crystal by cold-crystallization process, the α-form crystal is the initial phase. The activity energy of the α-form formation is lower that that of the β-form, suggesting that the α-form crystal is kinetically favorable while the β-form crystal is thermodynamically favorable.