The crystallization and II-I phase transition of functionalized polybutene-1 with hydroxyl groups were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. The results show that the incorporated hydroxyl groups increase the nucleation density but decrease the growth rate in melt crystallization. Interestingly, for the generated tetragonal form II, the presence of polar hydroxyl groups can effectively accelerate the phase transition into the thermodynamically stable modification of trigonal form I, especially with stepwise annealing and high incorporation. Using stepwise annealing, II-I phase transition was enhanced by an additional nucleation step performed at a relatively low temperature, and the optimal nucleation temperature to obtain the maximum transition degree was ‒10 °C, which is independent from the content of hydroxyl groups. Furthermore, the accelerating effect of hydroxyl groups on the II-I transition kinetics can be increased by reducing the crystallization temperature when preparing form II crystallites. These results provide a potential molecular design approach for developing polybutene-1 materials.
Keywords: butene-1 copolymer; crystallization; hydroxyl group; phase transition.