Effects of thermal treatment on phase transitions and on the mechanical relaxation in poly(vinylidene fluoride)

This work reports on the effects from thermal treatment in poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, obtained with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic thermal analysis (DMA) measurements. It is shown that in successive DMA measurements performed with one sample the a relaxation peak almost disappears while the /spl gamma/ ' peak appears. The /spl alpha/ relaxation peak, at /spl sim/100/spl deg/C in DMA measurements, is attributed to the preferential orientation of chains in the amorphous phase while the /spl gamma/ ' relaxation peak, at /spl sim/50/spl deg/C, is related to the thermal treatment to which the sample was submitted.