Quantitatively evaluation of the hydrogen bonding effects on the crystallization kinetics of poly (vinyl alcohol)/tea polyphenol composites

Abstract The crystallization kinetics behavior of PVA (poly (vinyl alcohol)) /TP (tea polyphenol) composites was studied in this paper. Results showed that the addition of TP component in such composites would reduce the crystallinity, leading to the formation of a lower Avrami exponent, n, based on crystal structures and nucleation. Under the fixed cooling rate condition, the n values of Avrami and α values of Mo are both higher for the above composites with TP ingredient at 10–20%. Subsequently, the influence of the hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) in PVA/TP composites, pure PVA and non-hydrogen bonding (non-H-bonding) in such composites were further quantitatively assessed by analyzing the H-bonding factor, F%, in relation to different crystallization kinetic parameters including Avrami exponent n, Zt, α, and F(T). Results showed that the relationship of Avrami exponent n and α were presented as n=-a1 + b1FPVA/TPH−bonding-c1F2PVA/TPH−bonding and α=-a5 + b5FPVA/TPH−bonding-c5F2PVA/TPH−bonding. The Zt were described as the functions like Zt=a2-b2e(FPVA/TPH−bonding−c2)/d, Zt=-a3 + b3FPVAH − bonding-C3F2PVAH − bonding, and Zt = a4(Fnon−H−bonding-b4)c4 respectively. The F(T) was presented as F(T) = a6−b6FPVA/TPH−bonding+c6F2PVA/TPH−bonding, where a, b and c are positive constants.