GT70 - Abstract Preview
GT70
Symposium: S01 - General Session
Poster Presentation
 
 

Crystallization kinetics of polyethylene on fast cooling up to 10 MK/s

Zhuravlev Evgeny (1)*, Schick Christoph (1)

(1) University of Rostock - Rostock - Germany

Quenching and obtaining of amorphous polyethylene films has been of interest for decades, since it’s crystallization on cooling under normal conditions is hard to avoid. Simple chain structure allows molecules to reorganize so fast, that even 1 MK/s is reported to be below critical cooling rate. It is the same structural simplicity which makes polyethylene attractive for modeling and MD simulations to improve understanding of basics of polymer crystallization in general. Recent advances in fast scanning calorimetry showed that the reduction of the sample thickness below 10 µm and measuring cell down to 8x10 µm^2 allows reaching up to 1 MK/s cooling at PE crystallization temperature. We report further development in this direction and results on measurement of less than 1 µm thick sample on 5x6 µm^2 measuring cell. The new sensor allows cooling up to 10 MK/s at 200 K and observation of what we believe is the glass transition of polyethylene. The advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed as well as future possibilities of improvement.