Crystallization and melting behavior of polyvinylidene fluoride in confined space of nanotubes

Abstract Homopolymer poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) thin films were fabricated via high pressure process and then PVDF film was melt into porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates to form hollow nanotubes and isothermally crystal at a certain temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is used to observed the microstructure of nanotubes. To explore the influence of nanopores on the crystallization and melting of PVDF, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used. It turns out that crystal phase is restrained in the nanotubes and mainly exists and at high temperature within relatively large nanopores and the bulk. As for phase, the increase of isothermal crystallization temperature results in the increase of melting temperature.