• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.803-809
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• 2012

The non-isothermal crystallization behavior of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) copolymer was investigated by DSC and imaging FTIR analysis. Modified non-isothermal Avrami analysis was applied to interpret the crystallization behavior of ETFE. It was found that the less linearity in ln[-ln(1-X(t))] vs. ln(t) plot was obtained in thermal analysis comparison with imaging FTIR due to relatively small crystallization enthalpy change in ETFE. It means that imaging FTIR measured by overall IR absorption intensity change due to the crystallization was found to be effective to understand the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of ETFE. In addition, the optical transmittance of ETFE was studied. The crystallite developed by slow cooling caused the light scattering and resulted in the increase of haze and the lowering of transmittance up to 8%. From our results, it was confirmed that cooling rate is an important processing parameter for maintaining optical transmittance of ETFE as a replacement material for glass.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2011

The wettabilities of the partially fluorinated polymers (ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE), ethylenechlorotrifluoroethylene copolymer (ECTFE), and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)) were investigated by contact angle measurements. Zisman plots for ETFE and ECTFE exhibited linear relationships, while the Zisman plot for PVDF showed a slight curvature, which was interpreted to indicate strong non-dispersive interactions between the surface and the contacting liquids. The Lifshitz-van der Waals forces of the fluoropolymers were estimated to increase in the order of ETFE < PVDF $\ll$ ECTFE. An evaluation of the polar or "acid-base" interaction energies showed that PVDF, which possesses the most acidic hydrogens among the examined fluoropolymers, has the strongest acid-base interactions.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2004

Transient sorption experiments were conducted among several combinations of fluoropolymers and various organic solvents. Fully fluorinated polymer tended to exhibit ideal sorption behavior, while partially fluorinated polymers showed anomalous sorption behaviors with a drastic acceleration at the final stage of uptake. Minimization of least-squares of the measured and predicted fractional uptake, which indicated the increasing degree of deviation from Fickian diffusion, gave values of 3.0${\times}$10$\^$-4/, 1.75${\times}$10$\^$-3/, 8.68${\times}$10/sup-3/, 1.75${\times}$10$\^$-2/, respectively, for perfluoroalkoxy copolymer, poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene), poly(vinylidene fluoride), poly(ethylene-co-chlorotrifluoroethylene). From stress-strain tests, it was confirmed that non-Fickian diffusion is closely related to the significant variation of mechanical properties (such as modulus and tensile strength) of swollen polymer. Anomalous sorption behavior stemmed from non-Fickian diffusion caused by nonlinear disruption of polar inter-segmental bonds due to solvent-induced plasticization. Thus, it is imperative to investigate the diffusion behavior of swelling solvents in partially fluorinated polymers, especially for the application to barrier materials or perm-selective membranes.