Syndiotactic Polystyrene Materials

Abstract

The ability of an engineering plastic material to maintain properties at increased temperature is critical in many applications. Here is discussed how recent developments in catalyst technology have led to the ability to produce syndiotactic polystyrene (See Figure), the regularly alternating arrangement of pendant phenyl groups giving rise to a crystalline material with well‐structured spherulitic morphology and improved heat performance.

Stereoselective Copolymerization of Styrene with Terpenes Catalyzed by an Ansa-Lanthanidocene Catalyst: Access to New Syndiotactic Polystyrene-Based Materials

“…On the other hand, syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) is a very attractive material due to its high melting point (ca. 270 • C), high crystallinity, low dielectric constant and good chemical and heat resistances [7,8]. However, its processability is limited by its high melting point and its brittleness.…”

Toughness of syndiotactic polystyrene/epoxy polymer blends: microstructure and toughening mechanisms

“…sPS is a relatively new polymer, being synthesized first in 1985 by Ishihara et al [23], whose semi-crystalline nature results in some excellent properties compared with its atactic, and hence amorphous, counterparts. These properties include a relatively high Young's modulus, very low water uptake, high heat resistance, and good solvent and chemical resistance [24]. One disadvantage is that sPS has to be processed at high temperatures due to its high melting point, T m , of 270 o C, which is close to the degradation temperature of the polymer [25].…”

Nitroxide mediated and atom transfer radical graft polymerization of atactic polymers onto syndiotactic polystyrene

“…The DSC curves of pure sPS and grafted onto syndiotactic polystyrene are shown in Figure 5. For pure sPS, T m and T c are around 270 and 240°C, respectively, similar to the values previously obtained (Matyjaszewski and Xia, 2001;Srinate et al, 2009;Malanga, 2000). In the case of acetylated syndiotactic polystyrene, no peaks were seen, which indicated that the acetylated syndiotactic polystyrene was unable to crystallize due to the large size of the substituent group.…”