Step‐like melting mechanisms of isothermally crystallized isotactic polypropylene

The complex melting behavior of isotactic polypropylene, after isothermal crystallization, was studied within the context of step‐like melting mechanisms which were previously proposed for high temperature polymers. The morphological characteristics of the melting process were also studied as a function of molecular weight, and close similarities were observed with respect to high temperature polymers. Positive birefringence crystals of low molecular weight samples developed double melting behavior in three steps. The first melting step was assigned to continuous melting of secondary crosshatch reversing lamellae, together with recrystallization of the remaining isothermal crystals. In the second melting step (first melting endotherm), crystals tended to lose their original coarse negative birefringence due to melting of secondary reversing branching. This effect rendered new, finer texture, but still negative birefringence crystals. In the third melting step (second melting endotherm), there was a combination of melting of two crystal populations, one consisting of the remaining fraction of reversing primary crystals, and the other consisting of nonreversing primary crystals. A crosshatch secondary branching model was therefore proposed to explain the overall results. Mixed birefringence spherulites of high molecular weight samples displayed similar, although proportional, behavior under identical crystallization and melting conditions corroborating the proposed melting mechanism. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 2188–2200, 2008     

Modeling of particle‐dispersed melting mechanism and its application in corotating twin‐screw extrusion

Particle‐dispersed melting is a complex but important melting mechanism in the corotating twin‐screw extruder. In this study, the complex multi‐particle‐dispersed system was simplified into a single‐particle melting model. The finite‐difference method was introduced to solve this problem. The simulation results show that the melting of a particle may involve two steps: the heating stage and melting stage. The heating time and melting time depend on solid concentration, initial melt and solid temperature, and shear rate. Calculations indicate that high solid concentration and solid temperature, low melt temperature and shear rate will result in a more uniform temperature distribution after polymer melting. The model offers valuable information for designing the melting zone in a corotating twin‐screw extruder, especially at high screw speed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 2461–2468, 2001     

Temperature rising elution fractionation of PP/PE alloy and thermal behavior of the fractions

In this paper, a PP/PE alloy prepared by sequential polymerization of ethylene and propylene was fractionated with temperature rising elution fractionation and a variety of fractions were obtained. Thermal analysis was conducted to probe the microstructures of fractions. Four types of fraction with different melting behaviors were identified: random copolymer with no melting peak, multiple-block ethylene-propylene copolymer exhibiting plural melting peaks, ethylene-predominant copolymer with single melting peak and ethylene-propylene block copolymer with double melting peaks. The production of these components was also discussed in terms of polymerization process and the nature of active sites in the catalyst.     

The double melting behavior of a liquid crystalline polyimide derived from PMDA and 1,3‐bis[4‐(4′‐aminophenoxyl) cumyl] benzene

The double melting behavior of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polyimide was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy (PLM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS). This liquid crystalline polyimide exhibited a normal melting peak around 278 °C and transformed into a smectic A phase. The smectic A phase changed to nematic phase upon heating to 298 °C, then became isotropic melt around 345 °C. The samples annealed or isothermally crystallized at lower temperature showed double melting endotherms during heating scan. The annealing‐induced melting endotherm was highly dependent on annealing conditions, whereas the normal melting endotherm was almost not influenced by annealing when the annealing temperature was low. Various possibilities for the lower melting endotherm are discussed. The equilibrium melting points of both melting peaks were extrapolated to be 283.2 °C. Combined analytical results showed that the double melting peaks were from the melting of the two types of crystallites generated from two crystallization processes: a slow and a fast one. Fast crystallization may start from the well‐aligned liquid crystal domains, whereas the slow one may be from the fringed or amorphous regions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 3018–3031, 2000     

Extended-chain crystals. V. Thermal analysis and electron microscopy of the melting process in polyethylene

Differential thermal analysis and electron microscopy of partially molten, extended-chain polyethylene crystals, grown under elevated pressure, was performed. It could be shown that melting peaks on the low temperature side of the main melting peak are due to narrowly distributed, low molecular weight polymer segregated in extended-chain crystals. Superheating of crystals before melting increased with molecular weight and chain extension. The melting mechanism of extended chain crystals was shown to be a successive peeling off of chains which leaves the chain extension constant up to melting of the last crystal trace.     

A novel method for determining the melting behavior of ultrathin films

Experiments were performed on ultrathin (ca. 35 nm thick) Langmuir-Blodgett films of a double-bond-containing material (vinyl tetracosanoate). The melting/flow point of this deposited material, before and afterin situ polymerization by means of electron beams, was determined by using a Mettler FP5/52 hot stage in conjunction with a polarizing microscope. The melting/flow point observed in the deposited films was found to be higher than the bulk melting point as determined by the capillary method or differential scanning calorimetry. This apparent violation of the principle that a given substance's melting point becomes lower as the sample becomes thinner is explained in terms of the fact that the thin-film process observed is really a combination of two processes, initial melting and subsequent de-wetting, whereas the bulk process involves melting alone.     

CaF2熔化温度的分子动力学模拟

The molecular dynamics method has been applied to simulate the melting temperatures of CaF 2 at elevated temperature and high pressure and to calculate the P～V equation of state of CaF 2 up to 100 GPa at 300 K. The interatomic potential was taken to be the sum of pairwise additive Coulomb, van der Waals attractions, and repulsive interactions. In addition, the shell model was used in molecular dynamics simulation. The pressure dependence of the melting temperature of CaF 2 was predicted up to 4 GPa. However, in order to account for the superheating melting of the molecular dynamic simulation, the simulated melting temperatures of CaF 2 were corrected by the modern theory of melting. Consequently, the melting temperatures of CaF 2 were accurately obtained at elevated temperature and high pressure. Therefore, it is shown that shell model molecular dynamics simulation at constant pressure indeed provides a useful tool for studying the melting temperatures of other materials under high pressures.     

Melting of Water Molecule Clusters in a Strong Electric Field under the Conditions Modeling Arctic Stratosphere

The melting of (H₂O)₄₀ice microparticles under the conditions of subarctic stratosphere was numerically simulated using the Monte-Carlo method. The melting point of the microparticles was found to be 60 K lower than the melting temperature of bulk ice. The melting was detected by the behavior of the internal energy of microparticles, their heat capacity and electric susceptibility. The melting was accompanied by a qualitative change in the molecular orientation order in a cluster. Abrupt changes in the molecular arrangement in the cluster were not found. An electric field destroys the molecular orientation order in the cluster, and the clear-cut phase transition disappears. An electric field increases the rotational mobility of molecules.     

Reversible melting of high molar mass poly(oxyethylene)

The heat capacity, C_p, of poly(oxyethylene), POE, with a molar mass of 900,000 Da, was analyzed by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry, TMDSC. The high molar mass POE crystals are in a folded-chain macroconformation and show some locally reversible melting, starting already at about 250 K. At 335 K the thermodynamic heat capacity reaches the level of the melt. The end of melting of a high-crystallinity sample was analyzed quasi-isothermally with varying modulation amplitudes from 0.2 to 3.0 K to study the reversible crystallinity. A new internal calibration method was developed which allows to quantitatively assess small fractions of reversibly melting crystals in the presence of the reversible heat capacity and large amounts of irreversible melting. The specific reversibility decreases to small values in the vicinity of the end of melting, but does not seem to go to zero. The reversible melting is close to symmetric with a small fraction crystallizing slower than melting, i.e., under the chosen condition some of the melting and crystallization remains reversing. The collected data behave as one expects for a crystallization governed by molecular nucleation and not as one would expect from the formation of an intermediate mesophase on crystallization. The method developed allows a study of the active surface of melting and crystallization of flexible macromolecules.     

热历史对尼龙1212熔融行为的影响

利用DSC方法研究了不同热历史条件对尼龙1212熔融行为的影响.不同的热历史条件下,在DSC曲线上,观察到尼龙1212产生2个或3个熔融峰,依据聚合物结晶理论,对各峰的来源进行了分析.在160℃下不同温度退火120 min的尼龙1212样品DSC曲线上,低温结晶熔融峰主要由低温结晶形成的一些微晶体或者片晶熔融产生,其晶体完善程度较差,熔融峰值较低,峰面积较小;主熔融峰是由样品在淬火过程中形成的晶体和升温过程中低温结晶形成的晶体的熔融重结晶形成较为完善的晶体熔融所产生,熔融峰值较高,峰面积较大.在不同的升温速率条件下,熔融峰温度有所移动,表明不同升温速率条件下产生的熔融峰的结晶晶型是相同的.在不同结晶时间下结晶,延长结晶时间对较高完善程度晶体的生长有利.在不同温度下依次退火处理的样品,熔融产生两个附加峰,这两个附加峰的峰温都比它们相应的退火温度高,而峰高和峰面积随退火温度降低而减小.根据等温结晶结果,由Hoffman方法确定了尼龙1212的平衡熔融温度为202.8℃.     

Isothermal crystallisation kinetics of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) using step-scan DSC

The crystallisation kinetics, melting behaviour and morphology, of bacterial poly(3-hydoxybutyrate) (PHB) have been investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), step-scan DSC (SDSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXRD) and hot stage polarised optical microscopy (HSPOM). DSC imparted isothermal crystallisation thermal history. The subsequent melting behaviour revealed that all PHB materials experienced secondary crystallisation during heating and the extent of secondary crystallisation varied depending on the crystallisation temperature. PHB samples were found to exhibit double melting behaviour due to melting of SDSC scan-induced secondary crystals, while considerable secondary crystallisation or annealing took place under the modulated heating conditions. The overall melting behaviour was rationalised in terms of recrystallisation and/or annealing of crystals. Interestingly, the PHB materials analysed by SDSC showed a broad exotherm before the melting peak in the non-reversing curve and a multiple melting peak reversing curve, verifying that the melting-recrystallisation and remelting process was operative. HSOM studies supported the conclusions from DSC that the radial growth rate of the PHB spherulites was significantly varied upon the crystallisation conditions. One form of crystals was shown by WAXRD from isothermally crystallised PHB.     

高压下MgO熔化特性的分子动力学模拟

Molecular dynamics simulation was used to study the melting of MgO at high pressures. The melting temperature of MgO was accurately obtained at elevated temperature and high pressure after corrections based on the modern theory of melting. The calculated melting curve was compared with the available experimental data and other theoretical results at the pressure range of 0-135 GPa. The corrected melting temperature of MgO is in good agreement with the results from Lindemann melting equation and the twophase simulated results below 15 GPa.     

机械振动对聚丙烯结晶作用的影响

对热塑性高分子作熔体加工时,在此过程中同时再叠加机械振动,设计制造的加工机器一方面具有卓越的技术经济指标,另一方面制品的物理性能也得到了提高[1,2].此类研究的重点多集中在动态成型过程中聚合物的流变行为或者成型后制品的力学性能方面[3,4],对聚合物本身在此外加交变力     

A modulated dsc study on the in situ polymerization of cyclic butylene terephthalate oligomers

The polymerization of a cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) oligomer was studied as a function of temperature (T=200 and 260°C, respectively) by modulated DSC (MDSC). The first heating was followed by cooling after various holding times (5, 15 and 30 min) prior to the second heating which ended always at T=260°C. This allowed us to study the crystallization and melting behavior of the resulting polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), as well. In contrary to the usual belief, the CBT polymerization is exothermic and the related process is superimposed to that of the CBT melting. The melting behavior of the PBT was affected by the polymerization mode (performed below or above the melting temperature of the PBT product) of the CBT. Annealing above the melting temperature of PBT yielded a product featuring double melting. This was attributed to the presence of crystallites with different degrees of perfection. The crystals perfection which occurred via recrystallization/remelting was manifested by a pronounced exothermic peak in the non-reversing trace.     

Melting of poly(ε-caprolactone) studied by step-heating calorimetry

This study demonstrates that the step-heating calorimetry, which is a kind of temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry, can provide valuable information on the polymer melting. Time-dependent heat flow due to the melting of lamellar crystallites in a narrow range of thickness can be directly observed, from which thickness distribution of lamellar crystallites and thickness dependence of the melting kinetics are deduced. A sample of poly(ε-caprolactone) was used as a model material of semi-crystalline polymer, which has high crystallinity (0.79) so that no recrystallization and/or reorganization occur during melting in the step-heating scan. It was revealed that superheating dependence of the melting rate coefficient increases with increasing lamellar thickness, which may be attributed to variation of the fold surface roughness with respect to lamellar thickness. Analysis based on the cylindrical nucleation model revealed much lower free energy values of lateral surface than that evaluated from crystallization behavior, suggesting that the nucleus for melting is more stable than that for crystallization.     

Characterization of oriented low-density polyethylene samples by differential scanning calorimetry

The melting behavior of samples of oriented low-density polyethylene is examined as a function of annealing temperature and time, subsequent heat treatment, and irradiation dose. Three types of endotherm are identified which are attributed to primary melting of the lamellae, to melting of the products of reorganization during the scan, and to melting of material crystallized during cooling from the original annealing temperature. Irradiation was found to suppress the refolding which normally occurs when a sample is heated above its annealing temperature, but also produces an increase in melting point. The behavior of similar samples prepared from high-density polyethylene is briefly considered.     

Influence of additives on the crystal structure and melting behavior of poly(ethylene‐2,6‐naphthalene dicarboxylate)

The influence of additives on the crystal modification and melting behavior of poly(ethylene‐2,6‐naphthalene dicarboxylate) (PEN) was investigated with wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The addition of a nucleating promoter, Ceraflour 993, had no effect on the crystal modification and melting behavior of PEN crystallized under all chosen experimental conditions. However, the addition of a nucleating agent, sodium benzoate (SB), did affect the crystal modification and melting behavior of PEN when PEN/SB was crystallized at a higher temperature, but not at a lower temperature. A mixture of α and β modifications of PEN was obtained, and an overlapped dual melting peak was observed in DSC curves when PEN was crystallized at a higher temperature in the presence of SB, instead of a single crystal form and a single melting peak for the crystallization of pure PEN. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 296–301, 2004     

Topology of melting diagrams of ternary reciprocal systems without continuous solid solutions

The topological properties were considered for melting diagrams of ternary reciprocal systems with constant-composition phases or with isomorphic diagrams with limited solid solutions. An algorithm for constructing the diagrams was described, and an example was given for a melting diagram with one binary peritectic compound and two ternary stoichiometric compounds, all melting without decomposition. A problem of enumeration of all the phase diagrams with such a set of compounds was solved.     

Microthermal analysis of the melting behavior in zone‐drawn isotactic polypropylene fibers

A microthermal analysis (μTA) method with an ultrahigh heating rate was applied to a zone‐drawn isotactic polypropylene fiber to evaluate the melting behaviors inherent to the microstructural changes occurring during the drawing process. The μTA melting point decreased with a reduction in the melting temperature because of the suppression of crystal reorganization and increased with an increase in the melting temperature because of the suppression of the relief of the orientation of the molecular chains, in comparison with the conventional melting point obtained by traditional differential scanning calorimetry. This study examined a convenient and powerful method for investigating the melting behavior for polymeric materials inherent to the original microstructure with less influence from thermal‐measurement heating. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3677–3681, 2004     

The multiple melting endotherms from poly(butylene terephthalate)

The melting behavior of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) has been investigated, and a simulation has been performed to determine whether the multiple melting endotherms observed during the thermal analysis of PBT can be explained by the simultaneous melting and recrystallization of an initial distribution of crystal melting temperatures that contains only one maximum and two inflection points. Specimens that were cooled at constant rates from the melt showed between one and three melting endotherms upon heating in a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The position and breadth of the crystallization exotherms upon cooling from the melt and small-angle x-ray scattering showed that as the cooling rate is increased, the distribution of melting temperatures broadens and shifts to lower temperatures. By combining temperature-dependent recrystallization with an initial distribution of melting temperatures, simulated DSC curves were produced that agreed well with experimental DSC curves. In instances of triple peaked curves, the high temperature peak was due to crystals formed during the scanning process, and the middle and low temperature peaks were due to crystals originally present in the material. Satisfactory agreement between the experimental and simulated curves was found without considering additional crystallization from the amorphous regions during the scanning process.