ArticlePublisher preview available

Structure evolution and properties enhancement of polyamide‐6/polyamide‐1010 films under uniaxial and biaxial stretching

Wiley
Journal of Applied Polymer Science
Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract and Figures

The effect of stretching process on the structures and properties of the stretch‐oriented PA6/PA1010 film was investigated during the uniaxial and biaxial stretching. The results showed that the PA6/PA1010 cast film exhibited β‐form crystals, and the uniaxial stretching induced the β → α + γ phase transition and preferential orientation along the stretching direction, while the β → α phase transition and no preferential orientation were observed during the biaxial stretching process. Meanwhile, the melting temperature and crystallinity of PA6 in uniaxially and biaxially stretched PA6/PA1010 films were improved with the increasing stretching ratios, thus creating a much more tortuous pathway for the diffusion of oxygen molecules to enhance the oxygen barrier property of the stretched films after uniaxial and biaxial stretching. The morphological analysis showed that the PA1010 particles were oriented and deformed along the stretching direction and no obvious debonding and voids were observed at the interface. In addition, the mechanical properties of the stretched films were closely dependent upon the stretching ratios. It was found that the tensile strength of the biaxially stretched PA6/PA1010 films with stretching ratio of 3.5 × 3.5 in MD and TD exhibited about 1.7 times and 2.2 times higher than that of the PA6/PA1010 cast film, respectively.
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Structure evolution and properties enhancement
of polyamide-6/polyamide-1010 films under uniaxial
and biaxial stretching
Xintu Lin
1,2
| Yuejun Liu
2
| Ruijie Jin
1
| Yong Peng
1
1
Nanchang Key Laboratory of
Photoelectric Conversion and Energy
Storage Materials, College of Science,
Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Nanchang, China
2
Key Laboratory of Advanced Packaging
Materials and Technology of Hunan
Province, School of Packaging and
Materials Engineering, Hunan University
of Technology, Zhuzhou, China
Correspondence
Yuejun Liu, Key Laboratory of Advanced
Packaging Materials and Technology of
Hunan Province, School of Packaging and
Materials Engineering, Hunan University
of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, China.
Email: yjliu_2005@126.com
Yong Peng, Nanchang Key Laboratory of
Photoelectric Conversion and Energy
Storage Materials, College of Science,
Nanchang Institute of Technology,
Nanchang 330099, China.
Email: pengyong@nit.edu.cn
Funding information
Foundation for Innovative Research
Groups of the National Natural Science
Foundation of China, Innovative Research
Group Project of the National Natural
Science Foundation of China,
Grant/Award Number: 11872179; The
Scientific Research Project of Education
Department of Jiangxi Province,
Grant/Award Number: GJJ2201522
Abstract
The effect of stretching process on the structures and properties of the
stretch-oriented PA6/PA1010 film was investigated during the uniaxial and
biaxial stretching. The results showed that the PA6/PA1010 cast film exhib-
ited β-form crystals, and the uniaxial stretching induced the β!α+γphase
transition and preferential orientation along the stretching direction, while
the β!αphase transition and no preferential orientation were observed
during the biaxial stretching process. Meanwhile, the melting temperature
and crystallinity of PA6 in uniaxially and biaxially stretched PA6/PA1010
films were improved with the increasing stretching ratios, thus creating a
much more tortuous pathway for the diffusion of oxygen molecules to
enhance the oxygen barrier property of the stretched films after uniaxial and
biaxial stretching. The morphological analysis showed that the PA1010 parti-
cles were oriented and deformed along the stretching direction and no obvi-
ous debonding and voids were observed at the interface. In addition, the
mechanical properties of the stretched films were closely dependent upon the
stretching ratios. It was found that the tensile strength of the biaxially
stretched PA6/PA1010 films with stretching ratio of 3.5 3.5 in MD and TD
exhibited about 1.7 times and 2.2 times higher than that of the PA6/PA1010
cast film, respectively.
KEYWORDS
biaxial stretching, crystal structure, microstructure, polyamide-6, thin films
1|INTRODUCTION
Benefitting from the good printability and processibility,
superior barrier, and mechanical properties, biaxially ori-
ented polyamide-6 (BOPA) film is widely applied in multi-
product packaging, such as food, pharmaceutical products,
soft-packaged lithium-ion battery, and so on. In recent
years, with the increasing market demand for flexible
packaging due to its excellent performance and conve-
nience offered by the packages, the BOPA film industry
has developed rapidly. However, few works dealing with
this topic have been reported in the literature.
14
Received: 28 March 2023 Revised: 16 May 2023 Accepted: 21 May 2023
DOI: 10.1002/app.54253
J Appl Polym Sci. 2023;140:e54253. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/app © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1of9
https://doi.org/10.1002/app.54253
... In the case of the heating-treated film (Figure 7a), the intensity of the diffraction ring was noticeably enhanced compared with the untreated one (Figure 5c), indicating an increase in the crystallinity of the copolymer film. With an increase in the stretching ratio, the diffraction signals in the direction of MD became stronger than those in the TD direction accompanied by the transform into non-uniform rings with the (010) and (110) lattice planes evolving from two semicircles into two shorter arcs, suggesting an increase in the crystalline orientation of the BO-PA66/PACM6 film [30,43]. When the stretching ratio was further increased to 3 × 3, the intensity of the diffraction ring was further decreased. ...
... It can be found that the melting temperature and the crystallinity of BO-PA66/PACM6 were slightly increased with the increase in the stretching ratio (Table S4) due to the more regular arrangement of the polymer chains upon stretching. and (110) lattice planes evolving from two semicircles into two shorter arcs, suggesting an increase in the crystalline orientation of the BO-PA66/PACM6 film [30,43]. When the stretching ratio was further increased to 3 × 3, the intensity of the diffraction ring was further decreased. ...
Article
Full-text available
Polyamide 66 was extensively utilized in various applications contributed by its excellent mechanical performance and outstanding durability. However, its high crystallinity renders it to have low transparency, which seriously limits its application in optical devices. Herein, a highly transparent polyamide (PA) 66-based copolymer was reported using 4,4′-diaminodicyclohexylmethane (PACM), adipic acid, and polyamide 66 salt as the reaction monomers. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analysis revealed that the crystal phase of the synthesized PA66/PACM6 displayed a clear transition from α to γ as the PACM6 increased accompanied by a decreased intensity in the diffraction peak of the copolymer, whose transmittance was successfully adjusted reaching as high as 92.5% (at 550 nm) when the PACM6 was 40 wt%. Moreover, the copolymer with a higher content of PACM6 exhibited larger toughness. On the other hand, the biaxially oriented films of PA66/PACM6 (20 wt%) were also prepared, and it was found that the transparency of the PA66/PACM6 copolymer could be further enhanced via adjusting the stretching ratio of the film. Furthermore, the mechanical strength of the biaxially oriented PA66/PACM6 was also improved with the increase in the orientation degree in the stretching process, indicating that the physical properties of the transparent PA66 were significantly influenced by its alicyclic structure, and the introduction of PACM into PA66 was capable of effectively improving the optical and crystalline characteristics of PA66, revealing that the synthetic strategy has great potential for guiding the design and development of transparent polyamide materials.
Article
Full-text available
A series of poly(butylene sebacate) (PBSe) aliphatic polyesters were successfully synthesized by the melt polycondensation of sebacic acid (Se) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO), two monomers manufactured on an industrial scale from biomass. The number average molecular weight (Mn) in the range from 6116 to 10,779 g/mol and the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the PBSe polyesters were tuned by adjusting the feed ratio between the two monomers. Polylactic acid (PLA)/PBSe blends with PBSe concentrations between 2.5 to 20 wt% were obtained by melt compounding. For the first time, PBSe’s effect on the flexibility and toughness of PLA was studied. As shown by the torque and melt flow index (MFI) values, the addition of PBSe endowed PLA with both enhanced melt processability and flexibility. The tensile tests and thermogravimetric analysis showed that PLA/PBSe blends containing 20 wt% PBSe obtained using a BDO molar excess of 50% reached an increase in elongation at break from 2.9 to 108%, with a negligible decrease in Young’s modulus from 2186 MPa to 1843 MPa, and a slight decrease in thermal performances. These results demonstrated the plasticizing efficiency of the synthesized bio-derived polyesters in overcoming PLA’s brittleness. Moreover, the tunable properties of the resulting PBSe can be of great industrial interest in the context of circular bioeconomy.
Article
Full-text available
Polyamide 6 (PA6) and PA6/ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) films were prepared through extrusion casting process, followed by uniaxial and biaxial stretching on a laboratory biaxial stretcher. The crystallization properties, mechanical properties, and barrier properties of PA6/EVOH films before/after stretching were investigated. It is found that the crystallinity of the stretched PA6/EVOH film is increased with the increase in EVOH content and stretching ratio. Notably, the oxygen barrier property of biaxially stretched PA6/EVOH films is 3 times higher than that of neat PA6 due to the strong interaction of two polymers and increased crystallinity. The modulus, tensile strength, and elongation at break of biaxially stretched PA6 films are also enhanced with the incorporation of EVOH. The crystal orientation of stretched PA6/EVOH films was investigated according to the wide-angle X-ray scattering analysis. The degree of orientation is increased with the stretching ratio. With the increase in the orientation degree, the stretched films show increased tensile strength whereas decreased toughness. Furthermore, the biaxially stretched films present balanced mechanical properties, and the stretching ratio of 3 × 3 shows excellent comprehensive mechanical properties.
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural evolution and properties of simultaneously biaxially stretched polyamide‐6/poly(ether block amide) copolymer (PA6/PEBA) films. The results showed the melting temperature of PA6 increased from 220.02°C to 225.56°C when the stretching ratios increased from 1 × 1 to 3.5 × 3.5, suggesting the occurrence of β → α crystal transformation. Meanwhile, the increase of stretching ratios increased the crystallinity of the films due to the molecular orientation, which could create a more tortuous path for the diffusion of oxygen molecules through the films. As a result, the oxygen barrier performance of the stretched PA6/PEBA film was increased after biaxial stretching. The morphological observation showed that spherical or slightly ellipsoidal PEBA particles were dispersed in the PA6 matrix. The thermal shrinkage of the stretched film increased as the stretching ratios increased, and no significant difference of the shrinkage between machine direction (MD) and transition direction (TD) was observed in the stretched films. It was also found that the tensile strength of the stretched films in MD and TD exhibited the highest value at a stretching ratio of 3.5 × 3.5, which was about 1.7 times and 2.1 times higher than that of the unstretched PA6/PEBA film, respectively.
Article
Full-text available
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) toughness was improved by blending with tributyrin (TBR) and poly(methyl methacrylate‐co‐ethyl acrylate) core–shell rubber (CSR) for toughening purpose. PLA was prepared by melt processing as binary (PLA/TBR or PLA/CSR) and ternary (PLA/TBR/CSR) blends with the total additive contents from 5 to 20 wt%. Ratios of TBR:CSR for the ternary blend were 25:75, 50:50, and 75:25. Based on the experimental results, a suitable formulation for the flexible packaging application was the addition of 5 wt% TBR and 15 wt% CSR. This formulation exhibited the values of strain at break and impact strength of 512% and 862 J/m, respectively. These values were comparable with those observed in low‐density polyethylene (LDPE). Thermal test results indicated some significant changes of the transition temperatures and crystallization behavior which reflected the strong influences of rubbery functions and plasticizing properties of CSR and TBR. Migration test of TBR indicated that the migration rate increased with the test duration. Moreover, samples tested at 100°C exhibited larger amount of migrated TBR than that observed at 50°C.
Article
Full-text available
In order to explore the relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic properties of PA510/SiO2 films, the effect of the stretching on the crystal structure and crystal orientation of stretched PA510/SiO2 films was studied. It could be seen from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) graphs that the layered SiO2 molecules were mainly oriented toward the machine direction (MD) and the dispersion could be improved by stretching. Through wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) analysis, PA510/SiO2 stretched films only contained a γ crystal form. During uniaxial stretching, especially for 1 × 3 film, the γ1(100) crystal form was obviously oriented in the equatorial direction, and the orientation of γ2(004) and γ3(006) crystal forms could be observed in the meridian direction. According to the Herman orientation function, the orientation of the b-axis in the MD increased with the increase of the stretching ratio. It was worth noting that the orientation of the crystal region was more obvious. The addition of SiO2 and the orientation of the crystalline and amorphous regions could improve the barrier properties of the films. The changes in the optical properties of stretched films were affected by the dispersion state of SiO2 and the surface roughness.
Article
Full-text available
In this study, biaxially oriented polyamide 6/polyketone/graphene oxide (PA6/PK/GO) films were prepared by melt blending then simultaneously biaxially stretched process, with the aim of obtaining high barrier properties films and improvements in their mechanical properties. The oxygen transmission rate of biaxially oriented PA6/PK/GO film significantly decreased with addition of polyketone and GO. It is surprising that the biaxially oriented process can excellently improve the barrier properties of biaxially oriented PA6/PK/GO film. For example, there was 94.7% OTR reduction of the film containing 20 wt% PK and 0.08 wt% GO compared with PA6 film at a stretching ratio of 3.3 × 3.3. It is due to more tortuous permeation path of oxygen molecule owing to molecular orientation during biaxially stretching, and higher relative crystallinity with addition of GO. The tensile strength of film was remarkablly improved by stretching orientation and increase GO concentration. However, the elongation at break of film was considerably reduced by increase of stretching ratio. Although addition of GO may slightly improve the elongation at break of film at low stretching ratio, there was dramatic decline of elongation at break with increasing the content of GO at a stretching ratio of 3.3 × 3.3.
Article
Full-text available
Renewable poly(ether‐block‐amide) (PEBA) elastomer was grafted with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) to prepare PEBA‐GMA, then it was melting blended with poly (lactic acid) (PLA) in an effort to achieve fully bio‐based super‐toughened PLA materials. The notched Izod impact strength of PLA/PEBA‐GMA blend was significantly enhanced when the content of PEBA‐GMA was higher than 20 wt%, and the tensile toughness was also improved. It was found a new copolymer was formed at the interface due to the reaction of the end groups (OH, COOH) of PLA with the epoxide group of PEBA‐GMA. This greatly improves the interfacial adhesion between PLA and PEBA‐GMA component, leading to finer dispersed particles of PEBA‐GMA which were better wetted by the PLA matrix. Therefore, the highly enhanced notched impact strength was ascribed to the effective reactive compatibilization promoted by the interfacial reaction. This provides a new idea for preparing super tough PLA materials with bio‐based elastomer, which will widely extend the application of PLA.
Article
Full-text available
In this study, the morphology, rheological behavior, thermal behavior, and mechanical properties of a polyamide 6 (PA6) and olefin block copolymer (OBC) blend compatibilized with maleic anhydride-grafted polyethylene-octene copolymer (POE-g-MAH) were investigated. The morphological observations showed that the addition of POE-g-MAH enhanced the OBC particle dispersion in the PA6 matrix, suggesting a better interfacial compatibility between the pure PA6 and OBC. The results of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis and the Molau test confirmed the compatibilization reactions between POE-g-MAH and PA6. The rheological test revealed that the melt viscosity, storage modulus (G’), and loss modulus (G”) of the compatibilized PA6/OBC blends at low frequency were increased with the increasing POE-g-MAH content. The thermal analysis indicated that the addition of OBC had little effect on the crystallization behavior of PA6, while the incorporation of POE-g-MAH at high content (7 wt%) in the PA6/OBC blend restricted the crystallization of PA6. In addition, the compatibilized blends exhibited a significant enhancement in impact strength compared to the uncompatibilized PA6/OBC blend, in which the highest value of impact strength obtained at a POE-g-MAH content of 7 wt% was about 194% higher than that of pure PA6 under our experimental conditions.
Article
There is great social awareness concerning the use of biobased materials of diminishing the rapid resource depletion and suppressing global warming. The inherent drawbacks of biobased polyamide 56 (PA56) such as poor notched impact strength limit its applications. Core‐shell structured impact modifiers consisting of a soft glycidyl methacrylate grafted poly(ethylene–octene) (POE‐g‐GMA) shell and a rigid polypropylene core were synthesized through the differences in interfacial tensions. Core‐shell rubber (CSR) particles were used to toughen biobased PA56 by melt blending. PA56/CSR composites exhibited a 560% increase in the impact strength, while the tensile performance loss was slight. This desirable toughness of biobased PA56 is attributed to the cavitation that occurred in POE‐g‐GMA shell which can induce shear bands and shear yielding, forming the fibrils. Characterizations, including X‐ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), melt rheological tests, and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were conducted to study the toughening mechanism. The results indicated the massive shearing yielding, the cavitation of the CSR and interfacial debonding between the POE‐g‐GMA and the PP were the principal toughening mechanisms.
Article
Biaxially oriented polyamide‐6 (BOPA) film has been widely used in many packaging applications. However, the BOPA film with excellent toughness is still required when utilizing in the field of soft‐packaged lithium‐ion batteries, pharmaceutical blister packaging, or frozen food packaging especially for vacuum packaging of irregular‐shaped food products. The purpose of this study was to improve the toughness of BOPA films by toughening with poly(ether block amide) (PEBA) (BOPA/PEBA films) based on the simultaneous biaxial stretching technology. The crystal structure, morphology, optical properties, barrier, and mechanical properties of BOPA/PEBA films were investigated. The results showed that the incorporation of PEBA into BOPA films slightly decreased the melting temperature and crystallinity of PA6, and the BOPA/PEBA films exhibited only α‐form crystals and no preferential orientation in the machine direction (MD) and transition direction (TD). The morphological observation showed that higher addition of PEBA led to the formation of microvoids due to the poor compatibility between PA6 and PEBA. As a result, the transmittance and oxygen barrier properties of the BOPA/PEBA films decreased. In addition, mechanical analysis suggested that the addition of PEBA could effectively improve the toughness of BOPA film.