Premium
A generalized equation for the prediction of melting temperatures of homopolymers and copolymers
Author(s) -
Kamal Musa R.,
Feng Lijun,
Huang Tao
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450800312
Subject(s) - copolymer , thermodynamics , supercooling , materials science , melting point , crystallization , homogeneous , melting temperature , polymer chemistry , polymer , physics , composite material
A generalized equation was derived to calculate the melting temperatures of homopolymers and copolymers. The Gibbs‐Thomson equation for homopolymers and a modified application to copolymers were derived using the proposed equation. The melting temperature T m 0 in the Flory equation corresponds to the melting temperature T m C,∞ of copolymer crystals with stems of infinite length. Also, T m C,n *, the melting temperature for copolymer crystals with stems containing the maximum possible number of structural units, n *, should be used instead of T m 0 as the basis of supercooling in crystallization. The proposed equation shows good agreement with experimental data for α‐alkene‐ethylene homogeneous copolymers.