Mechanical Properties and Stress-Induced Phase Transformations of Metallocene Isotactic Poly(1-Butene): The Influence of Stereodefects

A study of the mechanical properties and of the crystallization behaviour of samples of isotactic polybutene (iPB) of different stereoregularity prepared with metallocene catalysts, is presented. Stereoregular samples with concentration of rr defetcs lower than 2 mol% crystallize from the melt by compression-molding and fast cooling to room temperature in form II, whereas more stereoirregular samples crystallize surprisingly mainly in form III. The stereodefective iPB samples show interesting mechanical properties of high ductility and flexibility that increase with increasing concentration of rr stereodefects, with values of deformation at break higher than 1000% for the most stereoirregular sample containing about 5 mol% of stereodefects. The aging at room temperature produces transformation of form II into form I in more stereoregular samples, whereas no phase transformation occurs in more stereoirregular samples crystallized mainly in form III. A strong increase of Young’s modulus and of stress at yield is observed after transformation of form II into form I. For more stereoirregular samples with concentration of rr defects higher than 2 mol% crystallized in form III, the mechanical properties do not change significantly upon aging at room temperature because no phase transformations occur during aging. Also for the aged samples a remarkable increase of ductility and flexibility with increasing concentration of rr stereodefects is observed. The mechanical deformation is associated with stress induced transformations of form II and form III into form I. These results indicate that mechanical properties of iPB can be modified by the controlled incorporation of stereodefects and improvement of ductility is easily obtained while maintaining high crystallinity by inclusion of small amounts of rr stereodefects.