EFFECTS OF MORPHOLOGICAL-CHANGES ON THE OXYGEN-TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF POLY[(ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE)-CO-(1,4-CYCLOHEXYLENE DIMETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE)]

To improve the physical picture of the polymeric glassy state, the inf luence of morphological changes achieved by different thermal treatmen ts of an amorphous glassy poly(alkylene terephthalate) film on the oxy gen transport properties has been studied. Annealing treatments were p erformed on films in constraint imposed giving samples of different cr ystallinity contents and morphology. The dependence of the oxygen perm eability and diffusion as the foe volume from crystallinity content wa s investigated at sub-T-g temperatures within the range of 303-348 K. The investigations reveal that on crystallized samples, permeability a nd solubility coefficients decrease at higher crystallization temperat ure, while annealed samples showed an opposite trend despite higher cr ystallinities. Further, annealed films showed higher free volume conte nt. The trend of results suggests that different parameters are likely to play a significant role in determining apparent permeability coeff icients. The presence of microvoids in annealed samples may be suppose d.