The effect of a nucleating agent on lamellar growth in melt-crystallizing polyethylene oxide

摘要

The effects of a (non co-crystallizing) nucleating agent on secondarynucleation rate and final lamellar thickness in isothermally melt-crystallizingpolyethylene oxide are considered. SAXS reveals that lamellae formed innucleated samples are thinner than in the pure samples crystallized at the sameundercoolings. These results are in quantitative agreement with growth ratedata obtained by calorimetry, and are interpreted as the effect of a localdecrease of the basal surface tension, determined mainly by the nucleantmolecules diffused out of the regions being about to crystallize. Quantitativeagreement with a simple lattice model allows for some interpretation of themechanism.