Crystallization of polycarbonate induced by spinodal decomposition in polymer blends

We found that amorphous polycarbonate (PC) can be crystallized in several minutes by blending poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). When the blends were annealed in the two-phase region below the upper critical solution temperature, highly interconnected two-phase structure characteristic of the spinodal decomposition was developed and then the crystallization occurred in the PC-rich phase during the spinodal decomposition. As the molecular weight of PEO decreased, the crystallization rate decreased and the crystallizable temperature became narrower in spite of the acceleration of the polymeric segmental motion. These results suggest that the crystallization of the PC is not induced by the acceleration of the polymeric segmental motion, but by the up-hill diffusion of the liquid-liquid phase separation via spinodal decomposition. Owing to the competitive progress of the crystallization and the spinodal decomposition, the melting peak of the PC crystallites shifted to lower temperature with increasing annealing temperature.