Study of the multiple melting in polymeric materials by EDXD-PT. DSC compared application to poly(ethylene-succinate)

An alternative method to DSC, for revealing the thermal dissolution of the phases coexisting in a polymeric sample, is using se structure-sensitive probe, like X-ray diffraction. The problem with this is that it would be necessary to collect many diffraction patterns and to process them using theoretically calculated quantities. Instead, we used a method we developed, which simplifies the experimental procedure in studying phase transitions. It is based on the energy dispersive X-ray Diffraction and results in a curve that represents the evolution of the system under heating. In this paper, we present for the first time a comparison between these two techniques applied to a sample of poly(ethylene-succinate) which shows a multiple melting behavior when subjected to heating. The ability of EDXD applied to phase transitions (PT) to reproduce the complex melting behavior of PES causes one to think that a new tool for these kind of studies, completely independent of DCS, has been found. The potentialities and the merits of EDXD-PT are discussed together with its possible future developments.