Blends of nylon-6 with phenol-containing polymers

The miscibility of nylon-6 with poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVPh) or poly(1-hydrox y-2,6-methylphenylene) (p-Cl-novolac) was studied with differential scannin g calorimetry and small-angle X-ray scattering techniques. Both PVPh and p- Cl-novolac are miscible with nylon-6 at the molecular level. The presence o f the phenolic polymers affects the crystallization of nylon-6 and suppress es its melting point. PVPh increases the long space order in crystalline ny lon-6 because it increases the thickness of the amorphous layers. In contra st, a small quantity of p-Cl-novolac tends to decrease the long space order . It seems that p-Cl-novolac distributed in the amorphous regions introduce s more order in these regions and makes the amorphous layers thinner. (C) 2 001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.