Effects of post-reactor functionalization on the phase behaviour of an ethylene-1-octene copolymer studied using solid-state high resolution C-13 NMR spectroscopy

The effects of post-reactor functionalization with naphthoate-TEMPO on the structure and morphology of an ethylene-1-octene copolymer were investigated by means of solid-state NMR techniques and DSC measurements. Selective C-13 MAS experiments allowed the orthorhombic and the monoclinic crystalline phases and two amorphous phases with different degree of mobility to be detected and quantified. C-13 and H-1 relaxation time measurements and spin diffusion experiments gave insight into the polymer dynamics within the different phases, the crystalline domain dimensions, and the rate of chain diffusion between amorphous and crystalline phases. Comparison of the results obtained for the pristine copolymer and the functionalized samples clearly indicated that the functionalization procedure causes redistribution within the crystalline and the amorphous phases with no relevant change in the degree of crystallinity or in the crystalline domain average size, and slows down chain diffusion.