Morphology and hydrogen‐bond restricted crystallization of poly(butylene succinate)/cellulose diacetate blends

Poly(butylene succinate)/cellulose diacetate (PBS/CDA) blends were prepared by the solution blending method from poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and cellulose diacetate (CDA). The influence of hydrogen bond on the structure, morphology, crystallization, as well as the physical properties of PBS/CDA blends was significantly investigated. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicated that the carbonyl groups of PBS shifted to higher wavenumbers and disappeared at the content of 60% CDA, due to the formation of hydrogen bond between PBS and CDA. The wide‐angle X‐ray diffractometer (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis suggest that the crystallization of PBS was significantly restricted by the incorporation of CDA, which is also attributed to the hydrogen bonding. The scanning electron miscroscope (SEM) and polarized optical microscopy (POM) results revealed that PBS and CDA were miscible without appearance of obvious phase separation. The hydrogen bonding interaction led to the change of decomposing mechanism of blends as determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), as well as the increase of the elongation at break due to the reduced crystallinity of PBS. The existence of CDA led to the decrease of water contact angle, showing of the improved hydrophilicity. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012