Optimization of Thermomechanical Properties of Sulfur Copolymers by Thermal Annealing Process

초록

Polymeric sulfur has been applied in numerous fields including energy storage and harvesting applications and infra-red optics owing to low-cost and facile synthesis. However, there are often limitations in utilizing polymeric sulfur for practical applications due to their poor thermomechanical properties including low dimensional stability and low glass transition temperature, Tg. It is expected that thermomechanical properties can be improved through thermal annealing which removes unreacted sulfur because it can act as a defect. Herein, we present systematic studies on thermomechanical properties of elemental sulfur (S)-divinylbenzene (DVB) copolymers with various sulfur contents as well as annealing temperature and time. After annealing process, the storage modulus of the S-DVB enhanced up to 20% from 1.8 GPa and the Tg of the S-DVB increased by 104 ?C from 86 ?C. Finally, thermomechanical properties of S-DVB improve to the extent that it can be utilized in various regions.