Liquid crystalline polymers Celanese Vectra

To date, reports of investigations on the gas transport properties of main chain liquid crystalline polymers appear to have been limited to the work conducted in our laboratory. Chiou and Paul (4.) have briefly described the transport parameters of an extruded film of an LCP having a similar structure to the commercial product Vectra. This copolyester belongs to the family of napthylene thermotropic polymers (NTP s) commercialized by Hoechst-Celanese Corp. whose synthesis and properties have been described previously (iLS.). Transient permeation experiments were conducted with a series of gases. The effective... 

Vectra A is a commercially available polymer from Hoechst-Celanese. It is a random co-polyester of hydroxy benzoic acid (HBA) and hydroxy napthoic acid (HNA), which is a well-known class of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP) [92-95]. Crystallization of molecules of TLCPs is considerably different from that of polymers like polyethylene or polyethylene terphthalate [1], TLCPs have reduced flexibility compared to the latter, which implies that large translations of their molecules are required for recrystallization [96-99],... 

Three commercially available thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs) were presented as examples in this section. They are Hoechst Celanese Vectra A950 and Vectra B950 as well as Amoco Xydar . Vectra A950 is a random copolymer of 73 mol% 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and 27 mol% 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, and Vectra B950 is a random copolyesteramide consisting of 60 mol% of 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid, 20 mol% terephthalic acid, and 20 mol% p-aminophenol. Xydar is made from p-hydroxybenzoic acid, isophthalic and/or terephthalic acids, and 4,4 -biphenol. The repeating unit structures of the three LCPs are shown in Figure 6.2. 

Materials. As a matrix polymer, polyetherimide (PEI) Ultem KXX) of General Electric and polyphenylenesulfide (PPS) Ryton GR-02 of Phillips Petroleum were used. The reinforcing component was thermotropic liquid crystalline copolyester (LCP) Vectra B950 of Hoechst-Celanese. The chemical structures of PEI and LCP are presented in Figure 1. 

A history of the industrial development of thermotropic polymers would not be complete without a brief review of preceding technology, that is, the discoveries and developments made in lyotropic polymers. Thus, the timeline of milestones in liquid crystalline polymers proceeds from the initial observation of small molecule liquid crystallinity to the discovery of lyotropic and thermotropic high performance polymers and on through to the recent commercialization of thermotropic polyesters with the introduction of the Vectra (Celanese Corporation) and Xydar (Dartco Manufacturing) families of engineering resins. 

The commercial polymers used in the study are characterized in Table 1. The polypropylenes PP1-PP5 were homopolymers exhibiting different melt viscosities (see Fig. 1) supplied by Neste Chemicals. Liquid-crystalline polymer 1 (LCPl) (Vectra A950 by Hoechst Celanese) is a totally aromatic polyester-type thermotropic main-chain LCP copolymer based on p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) and 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (HNA). Liquid-crystalline polymer 2 (LCP2) (Rodrun LC-3000 by Unitika Ltd) is a more flexible thermotropic main-chain LCP copolyester consisting of 60%... 

The first melt-processable (later categorized as thermotropic liquid-crystalline) polymer, based on p-hydroxybenzoic acid and biphenol tereph-thalate, was reported by Steven Cottis in 1972. This polymer is now available on the market as Xydar . In 1973, the first well-characterized thermotropic polymer, a copolyester of p-hydroxybenzoic acid and ethylene terephthalate, was patented by Herbert Kuhfuss and W. Jerome Jackson (Eastman-Kodak Co., USA). They reported the discovery of liquid-crystalline behaviour in this polymer in 1976. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Celanese Company developed a family of processable thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers based on hydroxybenzoic acid and hydroxynaphthoic acid, later named Vectra . 

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