On the sub-Tg annealing of uniaxially oriented and unoriented atactic polystyrene

Abstract

DSC analysis was performed on uniaxially oriented and unoriented atactic polystyrene samples prior to and after annealing at 80 °C. With increasing annealing times, an endothermic peak appeared, whose area increased with the duration of the annealing period. No difference was found between the endotherm areas for the oriented and the unoriented polymer. The DSC curve of the unannealed oriented polystyrene exhibited a relaxation exotherm. DSC and relaxation studies indicated that this relaxation exotherm was independent of the main chain orientation; it may rather be due to sample densification