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The nucleation of microcellular thermoplastic foam with additives: Part I: Theoretical considerations
Author(s) -
Colton J. S.,
Suh N. P.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760270702
Subject(s) - nucleation , materials science , solubility , polymer , chemical engineering , polystyrene , volume (thermodynamics) , amorphous solid , zinc stearate , composite material , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , chemistry , raw material , physics , engineering
Microcellular foam is a polymeric foam with bubble sizes of 10 microns or less that is produced by saturating a polymer with gas and then utilizing the thermodynamic instabilities that result when the polymer is heated and the pressure is reduced to nucleate the cells. A model for the nucleation of microcellular foam in amorphous polymers with additives has been developed. The nucleation process depends on the solubility, concentration, and interfacial energy of any additives present. At very low levels, additives in solution act to increase the free volume of the polymer, resulting in homogeneous nucleation within the free volume Well above the solubility limit, heterogeneous nucleation dominates, as it lowers the activation energy for nucleation to levels below that for homogeneous nucleation. In the vicinity of the solubility limit of the additive, these two nucleation mechanisms compete. The polystyrene‐zinc stearate system has been chosen for experimental evaluation.