Structure, Morphology and Crystallization Behavior of Syndiotactic Polystyrene

Since syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS) was fi rst synthesized in the 1980s, it has stimulated interest from both technological and theoretical points of view. From the technological point of view, SPS presents various desirable properties such as high melting temperature, low dielectric constant, low permeability to gas, and good mechanical properties. At the same time, the very complex polymorphic behavior and the extreme sensitivity to the processing conditions spurred many investigations on this polymer. The great number of papers and patents that appeared on this polymer in the last years are the main results of these studies. The principal objective of these studies was the crystallization behavior of SPS, the structure of the ordered forms, and the properties of SPS with the respect to the processing conditions. The possibility of controlling the conditions for obtaining controlled structures indeed is particularly interesting in view of the different physical properties that the various polymorphic structures show. In this chapter, an attempt is made to synthesize the principal founding on this polymer and analyze it in terms of structural organization and crystal morphology .