Syndiotacticity‐rich ultrahigh molecular‐weight poly(vinyl alcohol) film. I. Determination of optimum polymer concentration by zone‐drawing method in film preparation

A new method using a simple zone-drawing technique has been suggested for determining the optimum initial concentration of a polymer solution that has suitable macromolecular entanglements. This method was developed to replace the incorrect inherent viscosity-measuring method for syndiotacticity-rich (syndiotactic diad content of 63.4%) ultrahigh molecular-weight (number-average degree of polymerization of 12,300) (UHMW) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solution. Syndiotacticity-rich UHMW PVA films were prepared from dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solutions with different initial concentrations: of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 g/dL. In order to investigate the drawing behavior of the syndiotacticity-rich UHMW PVA films with different solution concentrations, the films were drawn under various zone-drawing conditions. Through a series of experiments, it was discovered that the initial concentration of PVA solution in DMSO caused significant changes in the draw ratio of the syndiotacticity-rich UHMW PVA film. That is, the one-step and maximum zone draw ratios of the film at an initial concentration of 0.3 g/dL exhibited its maximum values and gradually decreased at higher or lower concentrations. Thus, it was disclosed that the initial concentration of 0.3 g/dL is the optimum polymer concentration to produce a maximum draw ratio in this work. Based on the above results, it may be concluded that the optimum concentration of the initial PVA solution can be determined directly by measuring the zone draw ratio. The draw ratio, birefringence, crystallinity, degree of crystal orientation, tensile strength, and tensile modulus of the maximum drawn PVA film were 32.9, 0.0449, 0.61, 0.991, 1.91, and 46.2 GPa, respectively. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 77: 123–134, 2000