Crystallization kinetics of biaxially stretched natural rubber

The isothermal crystallization of natural rubber was investigated under biaxial stretching. A marked planar orientation of crystals occurs in such a way that the (010) plane orients parallel to the film plane. The rate of crystallization increases with the biaxial stretching ratio, and the Avrami exponent n decreases. At the highest extension, n becomes less than unity. The equilibrium degree of crystallinity decreases with the stretching ratio. The crystallinity was less than 10% for the highest extension. The melting behavior is similar to that in uniaxial stretching.     

Crystallization kinetics in shearing‐induced oriented and stretched poly(ethylene oxide)

Isothermal crystallization kinetics in the melting of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) were investigated as a function of the shear rate and crystallization temperature by optical microscopy. The radial growth rates of the spherulites are described by a kinetics equation including shearing and relaxation combined effects and the free energy for the formation of a secondary crystal nucleus. The free‐energy difference between the liquid and crystalline phases increased slightly with rising shearing rates. The experimental findings showed that the influence of the relaxation of PEO, which is related to the shear‐induced orientation and stretch in a PEO melt, on the rate of crystallization predominated over the influence of the shearing. This indicated that the relaxation of PEO should be more important so that the growth rates increase with shearing, but it was nearly independent of the shear rate within the measured experimental range. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 656–665, 2004     

Crystallization in stretched and unstretched EPDM elastomers

Elastomeric networks were prepared from ethylene-propylene-diene (DPDM) terpolymers containing 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene as the diene monomer incorporated to facilitate crosslinking. Such materials, although highly elastomeric, show some crystallinity over much of the compositional range and thus an understanding of their mechanical properties requires characterization of this crystallinity in both the stretched and unstretched states. The properties and techniques used in the present investigation for this purpose were differential scanning calorimetry, stress-strain isotherms (at various extension rates), stress-temperature coefficients, birefringence and stress-optical coefficients, polarized light microscopy, small-angle light scattering, and wide-angle x-ray scattering. Correlations of the various types of results obtained are used to elucidate the dependence of EPDM network crystallization on composition, strain, and temperature. It was found to be particularly important to use a wide variety of techniques to provide a reliable characterization of the poorly developed crystallinity present in typical EPDM elastomers.     

Vulcanization kinetics study of natural rubber compounds having different formulation variables

Vulcanization kinetics of natural rubber (NR) compounds with efficient vulcanization system was studied through phenomenological approach using the experimentally cure data obtained from a moving die rheometer. The cure kinetic parameters were defined using the proposed models by Claxton?CLiska and Deng?CIsayev with the support of curve fitting software. The effects of the amount of accelerators, sulfur and silica in the formulations on the cure characteristics and cure kinetic parameters at high cure temperatures were investigated. Kinetic data results showed that the above two models were able to describe the curing behaviour of the studied compounds satisfactorily. It showed that the fitting of the experimental data with Claxton?CLiska and Deng?CIsayev could provide a good platform to investigate the cure kinetics of the prepared NR compounds.     

Crystallization kinetics of amorphous

The active sites of hydrogen-exchanged Y zeolite (HY) and dealuminated (HDY) zeolites are investigated by TPD of carbon monoxide. Only the high temperature TPD spectra of CO (TM»620-690°C) were observed, meaning that CO molecules interact with very strong acid sites. The amounts of CO bonded on these sites are small (less than 1 molecule per unit cell). The strong influence of dealumination on the coverage degree is found. The calculated values for kinetic parameters indicate chemisorption of CO in the investigated systems (Edes»240 kJ mol^-1, A»1011 s^-1).     

Mechanistic modeling of reversion phenomenon in sulphur cured natural rubber vulcanization kinetics

A novel kinetic model of natural rubber sulphur vulcanization is proposed. The modeling approach takes into account current knowledge on the different polysulfidic structures present during vulcanization, and the associated individual reactions. A simplified scheme is proposed, giving a mechanistic view of the reversion phenomenon, which results in a decrease of the elastic modulus (related to the sulphur crosslink density) for long vulcanization times at high temperature. The resulting set of differential equations is solved by an appropriate numerical method to predict the evolution of the degree of vulcanization for isothermal cure conditions.     

Development of internal fine structure in stretched rubber vulcanizates

Small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) pattern and tensile stress during relaxation of stretched rubber vulcanizates (synthetic polyisoprene) were measured simultaneously at room temperature and at 0 °C. The samples were quickly stretched to the prefixed strain and then allowed to relax for 1 h. In every SAXS pattern, the intensity distribution was elongated along the equator, indicating the formation of structures elongated in the stretching direction. The so‐called two‐spots pattern corresponding to the long period of stacked lamellar crystals did not appear even when the critical strain to induce crystallization was exceeded. On the other hand, even below the critical strain, additional development of equatorial streaks was detected in the differential SAXS patterns. This result suggests the growth of the density fluctuation elongated in the stretching direction, which is not directly related to strain‐induced crystallization. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011     

Crystallization in stretched polymer networks. II. Trans-polyisoprene

Measurements are described of the rates of crystallization and crystal melting temperatures in stretched test pieces of trans-polyisoprene, crosslinked to various degrees. The increase in rate with extension are attributed to the corresponding increases in melting temperature and hence degree of supercooling. The rise in the melting temperature of both the α- and β-crystal forms is found to be in satisfactory agreement with Flory's treatment of oriented crystallization. The changes in tensile stress are also generally in accord with the formation of oriented crystallites. For the more lightly crosslinked materials, a pronounced rise in tensile stress occurred during the later stages of crystallization, at extensions below about 100%. Reasons are given for attributing this phenomenon primarily to the relatively large contraction in volume on crystallization, rather than to the formation of folded-chain crystallites.     

Crystallization kinetics of metallic glasses

In this study, the temperature-heating rate diagram of the main crystallization process of two metallic glasses, Fe₇₄Ni_3.5Mo₃B₁₆Si_3.5 and Fe₄₁Ni₃₈Mo₃B_18, was obtained from one experimental differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scan and the knowledge of their activation energy as determined by an isoconversional method. A good concordance was observed between the diagram curves obtained by calculation (isoconversional approach) and the experimental data, which verifies the reliability of the method and the validity of the kinetic approach in these alloys.     

Crystallization kinetics of syndiotactic polypropylene

Melting-point and spherulite growth rate measurements for a sample of syndiotactic polypropylene (S = 0.716 and η = 0.356) were analyzed for the parameters characterizing crystal formation and growth: T_m = 159 ± 2°C, σ_e = 47 erg cm ^?2, σ = 4.4 erg cm^?2, and q = 5.6 kcal per mole of folds. The q and σ_e values place syndiotactic polypropylene in the group of “unhindered” polymers. Failure of the isotactic-polypropylene spherulite growth rate data to follow current theories of crystal growth precluded a comparison of crystal parameters of the two stereoisomers. At comparable degrees of supercooling, the absolute growth rates for the two forms are of the same order of magnitude and exhibit one or more crossover(s) in relative position.     

Crystallization kinetics of amorphous Se

Differential scanning calorimetry was used to study crystallization behavior in selenium glass under non-isothermal conditions. The crystallization kinetics were described in terms of the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami nucleation-growth model; activation energies and kinetic parameter m _JMA were determined. The study was performed in dependence with particle size, so that a novel approach to the evaluation of crystallization kinetics—the advanced interpretation of characteristic kinetic functions—could be employed. Extensive discussion of all aspects of a full-scale kinetic study for a complex crystallization process was performed within the framework of the introduced conception. The complexity of the crystallization process was found to be represented by very closely overlapping consecutive competing surface and bulk nucleation-growth mechanisms. Mutual interactions of both mechanisms as well as all other observed effects were explained in terms of thermal gradients, surface crystallization centers arising from the sample preparation treatments and a changing amount of volume nuclei originating from the combination of the pre-nucleation period and the actual glass preparation phase. The main objective of the study is to demonstrate the extent of so-far neglected information hidden in the characteristic kinetic functions and introduce a convenient tool for its acquisition.     

Protein-free natural rubber

Some properties of protein-free natural rubber were investigated by measurements of both water uptake and stress versus strain. The protein-free natural rubber was prepared in latex stage by the novel procedure to remove all proteins from natural rubber with urea and a polar organic solvent in the presence of surfactant, which had been developed in our recent work. First, the condition for the removal of the proteins was investigated in terms of affinity of the polar organic solvents, concentration of the solvents, type of surfactant, and repeating times for washing latex with a centrifuge. Acetone and anionic surfactant were found to be effective for the removal of the proteins. Under an optimum condition, total nitrogen content and amount of extractable proteins of deproteinized natural rubber were 0.000 w/w% and 0.00 μg/ml, respectively. The removal of the proteins from natural rubber was confirmed through Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Water uptake, hydration, and tensile strength of the rubbers were measured by water swelling method, FT-IR spectroscopy, and measurement of stress versus strain, respectively. The water uptake and the hydration were dependent upon the content of the proteins. The tensile strength of the rubbers, which were prepared to be as-cast films without crosslinking, decreased after removal of the all proteins.     

Crystallization kinetics of dilute polyethylene solutions

The crystallization kinetics of a high molecular weight fraction of linear polyethylene was studied in dilute solutions of p-xylene, n-hexadecane, and decalin by dilatometric methods. For all solvents and temperatures, the experimental isotherms could be quantitatively described by the Avrami formulation for the complete transformation. This result is unique in the realm of polymer crystallization, since marked deviations from this theory are usually observed in more concentrated systems. The Avrami exponent is found to be n = 4 in all cases. The temperature coefficients of the rate constants are indicative of a nucleation controlled process. The data fit either a two-dimensional or three-dimensional nucleation mode, and a discrimination can not be made between these two cases. The interfacial free energies are found to be independent of the solvent medium. It is also shown that, irrespective of the type of nucleation control governing the kinetics, the same type governs the crystallite thickness of the lamella-like crystals that are formed.