Effect of Moisture on the Orientation Birefringence of Cellulose Esters.docVIP

Polymers 2011, 3, 955-966; doi:10.3390/polym3020955 OPEN ACCESS polymers ISSN 2073-4360 /journal/polymers Article Effect of Moisture on the Orientation Birefringence of Cellulose Esters Mohd Edeerozey Abd Manaf, Manami Tsuji, Shogo Nobukawa and Masayuki Yamaguchi * School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan; E-Mails: edee@.my (M.E.A.M.); s0930047@jaist.ac.jp (M.T.); nobukawa@jaist.ac.jp (S.N.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: m_yama@jaist.ac.jp; Tel.: +81-761-51-1621; Fax: +81-761-51-1625. Received: 22 April 2011; in revised form: 1 June 2011 / Accepted: 9 June 2011 / Published: 14 June 2011 Abstract: Orientation birefringence and its wavelength dispersion are studied for hot-drawn films of cellulose esters such as cellulose triacetate (CTA), cellulose diacetate (CDA), and cellulose acetate propionate (CAP) exposed to three different humidities of environments. Hot-drawn CTA films show negative birefringence that decreases with increasing wavelength. On the other hand, CDA and CAP films show positive birefringence that increases with increasing wavelength, i.e., the so-called extraordinary wavelength dispersion of birefringence. Upon exposure to high humidity environment, the orientation birefringence of CDA and CAP decreases. The decrease is prominent for the samples containing a large amount of water. CTA, however, shows an increase in magnitude of its negative orientation birefringence with increasing moisture content. The results can be explained by the increase of the polarizability anisotropy perpendicular to the stretching direction in the cellulose esters. It is found from ATR-FTIR measurements that hydrogen bonds are formed between carbonyl groups of cellulose esters and water molecules. Considering that orientation birefringence