Effect of cation and anion sizes of additive ionic liquid on the crystal structure of poly(vinylidene fluoride) nanofiber.

We investigated the additive ionic liquid (IL) type dependence on the crystal structure of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers. As additive ILs, we used imidazolium based ILs with different cation and anion sizes. From differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements, we found that there is a proper amount for the additive IL to promote PVDF crystallization, and the proper amount is influenced by the cation size, not by the anion size. In addition, it was found that IL itself inhibited the crystallization, but IL can promote crystallization under the presence of DMF.