MELTING AND CRYSTALLIZATION BEHAVIOR OFAN AROMATIC POLY (AZOMETHINE ETHER) WITH NON-LINEARLY SHAPED MOLECULAR CONFORMATIONS

The melting and crystallization behavior have been investigated for an aromatic poly(azomethine ether) with non-linearly shaped molecular conformations. This polymer wasfound to undergo multiple melting processes and its phase transition behavior wasinfluenced sensitively by the thermal history of sample. A significant difference between thepolymer chain aggregation abilities of samples cooled from the different states wasobserved. The possible molecular morphology and aggregation models for describing thestructures of this polymer were proposed and discussed. The crystallization behavior of thesamples cooled from the partially isotropic state and the influence of cooling rate on it havealso been examined with DSC.