Effect of in impurity on crystallization kinetics of (Se.7Te.3)100−xInx system

The effect of In impurity on the crystallization kinetics and the changes taking place in the structure of (Se₇Te₃) have been studied by DTA measurements at different heating rates (α=5 deg·min^?1, 10 deg·min^?1, 15 deg·min^?1 and 20 deg·min^?1). From the heating rate dependence of the values ofT _g,T _c andT _p, the glass transition activation energy (E _t) and the crystallization activation energy (E _c) have been obtained for different compositions of (Se₇Te₃)_100?xIn_x (0≤×≤20). The variation of viscosity as a function of temperature has been evaluated using Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher equation. The crystallization data are analysed using Kissinger's and Matusita's approach for nonisothermic crystallization. It has been found that for samples containing In=0, 10, 15, 20 at%, three dimensional nucleation is predominant whereas for samples containing In=5 at%, two dimensional nucleation is the dominant mechanism. The compositional dependence ofT _g and crystallization kinetics are discussed in terms of the modification of the structure of the Se?Te system.     

Model-free method for isothermal and non-isothermal decomposition kinetics analysis of PET sample

Pyrolysis, one possible alternative to recover valuable products from waste plastics, has recently been the subject of renewed interest. In the present study, the isoconversion methods, i.e., Vyazovkin model-free approach is applied to study non-isothermal decomposition kinetics of waste PET samples using various temperature integral approximations such as Coats and Redfern, Gorbachev, and Agrawal and Sivasubramanian approximation and direct integration (recursive adaptive Simpson quadrature scheme) to analyze the decomposition kinetics.The results show that activation energy (E_α) is a weak but increasing function of conversion (α) in case of non-isothermal decomposition and strong and decreasing function of conversion in case of isothermal decomposition. This indicates possible existence of nucleation, nuclei growth and gas diffusion mechanism during non-isothermal pyrolysis and nucleation and gas diffusion mechanism during isothermal pyrolysis. Optimum E_α dependencies on α obtained for non-isothermal data showed similar nature for all the types of temperature integral approximations.     

Crystallisation behaviour of high density polyethylene blends with bimodal molar mass distribution 1. Basic characteristics and isothermal crystallisation

Isothermal crystallisation of high density polyethylene (HDPE) blends and their parent polymers was investigated. The blends having broad bimodal molar mass distributions and various compositions were prepared by blending a high molar mass (M_w=330 kg/mol, M_w/M_n=4.8) and a low molar mass HDPE (M_w=34 kg/mol, M_w/M_n=10) in different ratios in xylene solution. The blends and their parent components were characterised by size-exclusion chromatography, dynamic rheological and density measurements. Crystallisation kinetics were studied using a polarised light microscope equipped with an in-house built hot stage and by differential scanning calorimetry. The Avrami theory was applied for crystallisation kinetics analysis. Such crystallisation kinetics parameters as nucleation rate, nucleation density, the Avrami index and cystallisation rate contant were determined for the blends and their parent polymers.According to the results obtained an increasing polydispersity of the sample had a slight increasing effect on the Avrami index, indicating gain in prevalence of the thermal nucleation over the athermal one. In all samples nucleation density increased continuously during crystallisation verifying that the presence of a certain thermal nucleation was typical for all the materials studied. Both the crystallisation rate constant and the nucleation rate decreased with increasing molar mass of the sample. The nucleation density increased proportionally to the increase in average molar mass and the values were larger at lower crystallisation temperatures.The formed supermolecular structure was found to be sensitive to the blend composition and crystallisation temperature. Irregular banded or non-banded spherulites were observed in the materials. Banding of spherulites was typical for the samples having higher average molar mass. The superstructures observed in this work were smaller and vaguer than the superstructures reported in the earlier studies of polyethylene materials having similar average molar mass but narrow molar mass distribution.     

Synthesis of molecular sieve AlPO4-12

A member of the novel family of crystalline microporous aluminophosphates, AlPO₄-12, was synthesized by hydrothermal crystallization using different aluminum-containing compounds. Three new crystalline phases were obtained by varying the composition of the reaction mixture. The effect of the synthesis conditions on the hudrothermal process and the kinetics of crystallization are discussed. The apparent activation energies obtained for AlPO₄-12 are 20.9 and 14.6 kcal/mol for nucleation and crystallization, respectively. The adsorption isotherms of one AlPO₄-12 product were measured.     

Thermal behavior of syndiotactic E-1,2-poly(3-methyl-1,3-pentadiene)

Syndiotactic E-1,2-poly(3-methyl-1,3-pentadiene) was synthesized with the catalyst system Fe(bipy)₂Cl₂-MAO. The thermal stability and kinetic parameters of degradation were determined by thermogravimetric analysis. The isothermal crystallization kinetics were described by means of the Avrami equation, which suggested a three-dimensional growth of crystalline units, developed by heterogeneous nucleation, followed by a secondary crystallization stage. Syndiotactic E-1,2-poly(3-methyl-1,3-pentadiene) isothermally crystallizes from the melt according to regime II of crystallization described by Lauritzen-Hoffman secondary nucleation theory. Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics were elaborated using different approaches. The equilibrium melting temperature was calculated. The kinetic and thermodynamic data were compared with those obtained from syndiotactic 1,2-poly(1,3-butadiene), which is the first example of 1,2 polydienes family.     

A new methodology for the simulation of solid state phase transition kinetics by combination of nucleation and nuclei growth processes

A new methodology for the simulation of solid state phase transition kinetics has been developed by combining the influence of nucleation rate, nuclei growth rate and the power p characterizing the contact area between the growing particles. The equations used in this methodology were well known, and have been used previously for creating some of the most popular solid-state kinetic equations. The developed methodology made possible calculations of separate rate constants for two processes affecting the rate of phase transition—nucleation (described with K ₁) and nuclei growth (described with K ₂). Similar phase transitions were also approximated with the well-known single constant Avrami–Erofeev equation, but we successfully calculated both constants according to the new methodology, which allowed a separate evaluation of these two processes and explained the different induction periods. The effects of empirically adjusted constants on theoretically calculated kinetic curves were thus determined.     

Isothermal and non-isothermal kinetic study of the PbGeO3 solid-solid phase transition

A kinetics study on PbGeO₃ solid-solid phase transition was realised by means of differential scanning calorimetry and time-resolved X-ray powder diffraction. Isothermal and non-isothermal Johnson-Mehl-Avrami equations were applied to obtain both the activation energy E_a and the Avrami coefficient n. The latter parameter has been related to morphological evidences collected by scanning electron microscopy. The limits of the applied theory, i.e., the Arrhenian behaviour of the growth rate and a steady-state nucleation rate, are finally discussed in terms of recent theoretical developments.     

Study of the crystallization kinetics in amorphous Fe83P17 alloy

The crystallization kinetics of Fe₈₃P₁₇ amorphous alloy has been studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. The samples were annealed isothermally at two different temperatures (315 °C and 325 °C). During isothermal annealing of the samples three phases were observed: crystalline Fe₃P phase, crystalline -Fe phase and the amorphous phase. The value of the Avrami exponent was found to be about 2.0 at each annealing temperature. This suggests that the growth rate of the crystals is controlled by volume diffusion and the nucleation rate decreases during crystallization. The activation energy obtained for the overall crystallization process was 193±43 kJ mol^–1.     

Polarization of the contact between fluorine-conducting solid electrolyte and metal alloys

The kinetics of low-sized phase formation on polarization of the interface between LaF₃:Eu²⁺ and Pb–Sn, Sn–Bi, and Sb–Bi alloys is studied by the potentiostatic and linear voltammetry methods. The analysis of anodic transients shows that the new phase formation involving fluoride ions from the solid electrolyte proceeds by the mechanism of instantaneous two-dimensional or three-dimensional nucleation. Comparison of calculated and experimental transients describing the instantaneous nucleation with either two-dimensional growth on the I/I _m vs. t/t _m coordinates or three-dimensional growth on the I ²/I _m ² vs. t/t _m coordinates shows adequate agreement between the model and the initial regions of experimental curves. The properties of phases formed depend on the alloy composition and the polarization conditions as well as on the energy of interaction between components in the alloy and in the new phase.     

Kinetics of thermal degradation and thermal oxidative degradation of poly(p-dioxanone)

The kinetics of the thermal degradation and thermal oxidative degradation of poly(p-dioxanone) (PPDO) were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Kissinger method, Friedman method, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method and Coats-Redfern method have been used to determine the activation energies of PPDO degradation. The results showed that the thermal stability of PPDO in pure nitrogen is higher than that in air atmosphere. The analyses of the solid-state processes mechanism of PPDO by Coats-Redfern method and Criado et al. method showed: the thermal degradation process of PPDO goes to a mechanism involving random nucleation with one nucleus on the individual particle (F₁ mechanism); otherwise, the thermal oxidative degradation process of PPDO is corresponding to a nucleation and growth mechanism (A₂ mechanism).     

A novel online visualization system for observing polymer extrusion foaming

Cell nucleation and premature cell growth in extrusion foaming are critical to elaborate the morphology of final foams. These courses happen in the extrusion die which has been unknown for real extrusion foaming process. In this study, a novel visualization system was developed to online observe the cell nucleation and evolution behavior in the extrusion die. The cell evolution and real time pressure along the flow direction could also be obtained with the system. It was found that the solution pressure P_solution was influential to the critical nucleation radius R_cr and the nucleation rate N₀. The higher screw rotating speed corresponded to higher P_solution, lower in die N₀ and less premature cells, while higher cell density for extrude foams. In addition, premature cells with radius over critical break radius R_crb would break into several small cells under sufficient stress gradient in the extrusion flow field.     

Experimental study of shear-induced crystallization of an impact polypropylene copolymer

The crystallization kinetics of polypropylene was observed during shear and after shear experiments under isothermal condition. The crystallizations were performed in a plate-plate and a fiber pull-out device. The nucleation density, the crystalline growth and the overall kinetics were measured and compared with data obtained in a similar way but during static experiments. The morphologies are spherulitic and formed from nuclei which seem to be randomly distributed. -phase spherulites are always observed but with a nucleation density and a growth rate which depend on shearrate. The nucleation density is strongly enhanced by shear and acts as the main factor on the overall kinetics. The overall kinetics can be analyzed with a two-step Avrami model, where an Avrami exponentn ₁ with a very high value is always observed first after shear and a more usual parametern ₂ for the subsequent crystallization period. This high value ofn ₁ seems to be related to the strong enhancement of nucleation density. The growth rate increases with the shear-rate, but the basic growth mechanisms do not seem to be modified. For crystallizations after shear the growth rate decreases with a long-time delay after shear but not down to the static value. The effect is characteristic of a partial relaxation of chain orientation after shear but with a very unusual time constant.     

A calorimetric study of low-spin ⇐ high-spin transitions in bis(1,10-phenanthroline-2-carbaldehyde phenyl hydrazone)iron(II) diperchlorate and ditetrafluoroborate

Specific heat measurements for Fe(phy)₂(ClO₄)₂ and Fe(phy)₂(BF₄)₂ are reponed in the spin transition region. A maximum in C_p is observed at T_C due to the first-order character of the spin-state transition. The value of C_p for high-spin states is greater than that for low-spin states. The derived values of ΔH, ΔS, ΔC_p and the effective activation energy of the spin-state transition have been used as a test of various theoretical models. For the non-interacting domain model, the average domain size has been estimated. Within the interacting binary mixture model, the values of various interaction parameters have been estimated. Based on the nucleation and growth phase transition model, approximate values of the activation barrier, the nucleation rate and the surface energy have been found. The relative merits of these models are discussed.     

Kinetics and mechanism of the dehydration of γ-FeOOH

The dehydration of γ-FeOOH to γ-Fe₂O₃ in vacuo has been investigated by thermoanalysis. Results have been checked by electron microscopy and diffraction and by x-ray diffraction. Authors find that formal kinetics are not conclusive. Electron micrographs, however, show directly that random nucleation occurs, producing perfectly oriented but disordered γ-Fe₂O₃ crystals of about 70 Å size. The results can be accomodated with an atomistic model of lattice collapse.     

Experiment vs. theory in solid-state reaction kinetics: A discrete model for NH4HCO3 thermal decomposition

A discrete model has been constructed for the thermal decomposition of NH₄HCO₃ single crystals according to the mechanism of nucleation and growth to impingement. The rate-time curve has been computed in terms of the crystal structure of ammonium hydrocarbonate proceeding from microscopic assumptions. This illustrates previously suggested discrete approach to solid-state reaction kinetics in terms of Dirichlet tessellations. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Electrochemical nucleation with diffusion-limited growth. Properties and analysis of transients

A general equation for the potentiostatic transient for the case of electrochemical nucleation with diffusion-controlled growth has been published recently [L. Heerman, A. Tarallo, J. Electroanal. Chem. 470 (1999) 70]. This equation essentially is a correction to the model of Scharifker and Mostany [J. Electroanal. Chem. 177 (1984) 13] but leads to quite different predictions. This paper discusses the differences between these two models with special emphasis on the analysis of experimental transients. Numerical data are presented which allow the determination of the nucleation parameters (nucleation rate constant A and site density N₀). Finally, it is shown that plots of I/I_max versus t/t_max, which are widely used in the literature for the graphical representation of experimental results, are not very sensitive and can easily lead to misinterpretation of experimental results.     

Thermal degradation mechanism of highly filled nano-SiO2 and polybenzoxazine

Effects of high nano-SiO₂ loading (up to 30 mass%) on polybenzoxazine (PBA-a) thermal degradation kinetics have been investigated using nonisothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The DTG curves revealed three stages of thermal decomposition process in the neat PBA-a, while the first peak at low temperature was absent in its nanocomposites. As a consequence, the maximum degradation temperature of the nanocomposites shifted significantly to higher temperature as a function of the nano-SiO₂ contents. Moreover, the degradation rate for every degradation stage was found to decrease with the increasing amount of the nano-SiO₂. From the kinetics analysis, dependence of activation energy (E _a) of the nanocomposites on conversion (α) suggests a complex reaction with the participation of at least two different mechanisms. From Coats–Redfern and integral master plot methods, the average E _a and pre-exponential factor (A) of the nanocomposites showed systematically higher value than that of the PBA-a, likely from the shielding effect of the nanoparticles. The main degradation mechanism of the PBA-a was determined to be a random nucleation type with one nucleus on the individual particle (F1 model), while that of the PBA-a nanocomposite was the best described by diffusion-controlled reaction (D3 model).     

高序石墨电极上单分散纳米铜粒子的电结

Mechanism of copper electrocrystallization on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite electrode from a solution of 1 mmol/L CuSO4 and 1.0 mol/L H2SO4 has been studied using cyclic voltammogram and chronoamperometry. The results show that in copper electrodeposition the charge-transfer step is fast and the rate of growth is controlled by the rate of mass transfer of copper ions to the growing centers. Reduction of Cu(Ⅱ) ions did not undergo underpotential deposition. The initial deposition kinetics of Cu electrocrystallization corresponds to a model including progressive nucleation and diffusion controlled growth. Copper nanocrystals with size of 75.6 nm and relative standard deviation of 9% can be obtained by modulation potential electrodeposition.