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Flow as an effective promotor of nucleation in polymer melts: a quantitative evaluation

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Abstract.

An apparatus is presented which enables the application of defined portions of mechanical work to the polymer sample in its state of undercooled melt. For the purpose mainly intermittent shear creep is used. Results are presented for an industrial grade of polypropylene. A three-dimensional picture is presented, in which the resulting numbers of nuclei (per unit volume) are plotted against two responsible parameters: crystallization temperature and mechanical work. With decreasing temperature and with increasing mechanical work the number of nuclei increases by many decades.

At sufficiently high mechanical loads a transition to thread-like precursors ("shishs") has been observed previously. Oriented structures (kind of "shish-kebabs") are formed in this way. The periods of shearing applied have always been extremely short compared with the time until crystallization becomes observable. In this way an accumulation of various processes could be avoided. The description of shear induced crystallization, as previously given, is modified in the light of the present results.

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Acknowledgements.

The authors are very much indebted to Mr. Manfred Lipp for his continuous assistance as an instrument maker. Mrs. J. Braun kindly permitted us to use the picture catalogue she had prepared for the evaluation of large numbers of nuclei. The third author acknowledges support by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung under contract nb. P 13123 Tec. The authors are indebted to Prof. G. Eder for valuable discussions.

Last but not least the authors feel that they should mention that the presented experimental results are largely a by-product of classified work, as carried out by the second author for Borealis AG. Linz (Dept. RAPP, Project Nb. 802155 of the Austrian Forschungs-Förderungsfonds für die gewerbliche Wirtschaft). The results obtained on PP KS 10, which has already been investigated in the course of a National Working Party during the years 1984 and 1989 – see Lederer and Mingozzi (1997) – were used in the context of the said project only for purposes of comparison. The benevolent consent by Dr. W. Neißl and Dr. M. Gahleitner for the publication of these results is highly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Johannes Kepler University, A-4040, Linz, Austria

    H. Janeschitz-Kriegl, Ewa Ratajski & Manfred Stadlbauer

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  1. H. Janeschitz-Kriegl
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  2. Ewa Ratajski
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  3. Manfred Stadlbauer
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Dedicated to Prof. D. Heikens, Eindhoven.

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Janeschitz-Kriegl, H., Ratajski, E. & Stadlbauer, M. Flow as an effective promotor of nucleation in polymer melts: a quantitative evaluation. Rheol Acta 42, 355–364 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-002-0247-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-002-0247-x

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