AbstractThe effect of the physical aging of ethylene ionomers was studied for the samples with the acid content of 5.4 mol, and the degree of neutralization, 0, 60 Na, 60 Zn, and 90 Zn. The information about the crystal and the cluster part of the physically aged ionomers was obtained by differential scanning calorimetry and by dynamic viscoelastic measurements, respectively. The degree of crystallinity and the dynamic modulus for the ionomers of the degree of neutralization 0, 60 Na and 60 Zn increased gradually with the aging time; on the other hand, the crystallinity of 90 Zn remained constant and the modulus at 100°C increased to a certain value up to a period of 100 h, but thereafter the crystallinity increased remarkably and the modulus remained. These facts indicate that the crystallization of neutralized ethylene ionomer starts after clustering and the clustering would finish at early stage of the physical aging for intermediately neutralized ethylene ionomer. The physical aging effect of the ethylene ionomers was, thus, found to be important to material design
展开▼
