Open AccessNucleation‐controlled semicrystalline morphology of bulk polymers
Author(s) -
Schick Christoph,
Androsch René
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
polymer crystallization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.443
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2573-7619
DOI - 10.1002/pcr2.10036
Subject(s) - nucleation , supercooling , crystallization , crystallization of polymers , crystallinity , homogeneous , materials science , crystal (programming language) , chemical physics , polymer , crystal growth , thermodynamics , crystallography , chemistry , composite material , physics , computer science , programming language
The dependence of formation of qualitatively different semicrystalline morphologies on the degree of supercooling of the melt before nucleation/crystallization is analyzed for a large number of polymers, allowing general statements about nucleation pathways. Emphasis is placed on identification of temperature ranges of prevalent heterogeneous and homogeneous primary crystal nucleation, which are identified by analyses of the temperature dependence of the crystallization kinetics, and of the resulting structure at all length scales. As a typical feature, the density of homogeneous nuclei forming at low temperatures is several orders of magnitude higher than the density of heterogeneous nuclei impacting the dimensions and the spatial organization of crystals. It will also be shown that addition of (athermal) heterogeneous nucleators affects crystallization at low supercooling of the melt, with the availability of a sufficiently large number of these heterogeneous nuclei at the temperature of highest crystal growth rate then even causing faster crystallization than at temperatures of prevailing homogeneous nucleation.