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Distributions of Crystal Size from DSC Melting Traces for Polyethylenes
Author(s) -
Feng Lijun,
Kamal Musa R.
Publication year - 2004
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.5450820611
Subject(s) - linear low density polyethylene , enthalpy of fusion , differential scanning calorimetry , high density polyethylene , polyethylene , materials science , fusion , crystal (programming language) , melting point , thermodynamics , polymer chemistry , composite material , physics , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , programming language
Abstract Melting curves, obtained by differential scanning calorimetry, are used to estimate crystal size distributions. The proposed theoretical analysis is applied to different types of polyethylene, including high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), metallocene catalyzed linear low‐density polyethylenes (m‐LLDPE), blends of m‐LLDPEs, and Ziegler‐Natta catalyzed LLDPEs (ZN‐LLDPE). Theoretical predictions are in agreement with experimental results. A generalized melting temperature equation successfully predicts the melting temperatures of all the LLDPEs, although it was initially proposed for homogeneous copolymers with excluded comonomers. A new definition of the heat of fusion for pure crystals is proposed. This heat of fusion can be calculated from the average crystal size or the crystal size number distribution.