Modeling induction period of polymer crystallization

POLYMER

卷:129

Article

Yokota, Hiroshi¹  Kawakatsu, Toshihiro¹ 

[1] Tohoku Univ, Grad Sch Sci, Dept Phys, Aoba Ku, Sendai, Miyagi 9808578, Japan

关键词: Polymer crystallization;    Induction period;    Spinodal decomposition;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.polymer.2017.09.022

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

We study the possibility of the spinodal decomposition in the induction period of the polymer crystallization. This phenomenon was first reported in an X-ray scattering experiment, and has still been controversial due to various experiments and theories that support or deny the phenomenon. In this article, we explain the condition for the spinodal decomposition to occur in polymer melts by deriving a Ginzburg-Landau model of the free energy as a functional of the density and the orientation of the segments, where we introduce the excluded volume and the nematic interactions through a combination of the random phase approximation and the transfer matrix for the polymer conformation. We show that, upon elimination of the degrees of freedom of the orientation, the nematic interaction reduces to an effective attraction whose strength increases with the stiffness of the polymer chain. Such an attraction induces spinodal decomposition especially for stiff polymer chain case. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free