We propose a unified thermodynamic model of flow-induced crystallization of polymer(uFIC),which incorporates not only the conformational entropy reduction but also the contributions of flow-induced chain orientation,t...We propose a unified thermodynamic model of flow-induced crystallization of polymer(uFIC),which incorporates not only the conformational entropy reduction but also the contributions of flow-induced chain orientation,the interaction of ordered segments,and the free energy of crystal nucleus and crystal morphology.Specifically,it clarifies the determining parameters of the critical crystal nucleus size,and is able to account for the acceleration of nucleation,the emergence of precursor,different crystal morphologies and structures induced by flow.Based on the nucleation barrier under flow,we analyze at which condition precursor may occur and how flow affects the competition among different crystal forms such as orthorhombic and hexagonal phases of polyethylene.According to the uFIC model,the different crystal morphologies and structures in the flow-temperature space have been clarified,which give a good agreement with experiments of FIC.展开更多
We propose a theoretical approach to quantitatively account for the role of entanglement in the nucleation of polymer melts, which is the unique feature of polymer differentiated from small molecules. By performing mo...We propose a theoretical approach to quantitatively account for the role of entanglement in the nucleation of polymer melts, which is the unique feature of polymer differentiated from small molecules. By performing molecular dynamics simulations, we obtain the nucleation barriers of polymer systems with different entanglement densities, which exhibits an opposite trend compared to the prediction of the classic nucleation theory(CNT). To amend the deficiency of the CNT in polymer crystallization, we introduce the entanglement free energy to reflect the role of entanglement in polymer nucleation. Specifically, the polymer nucleation not only involves free energies of monomers inside and on the surface of a nucleus as considered in the CNT, but also affects the entanglement network around the nucleus. Our theoretical approach provides a reasonable interpretation for the unsolved nucleation phenomena of polymers in simulations and experiments.展开更多
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.51890872 and 51633009)the National Key R&D Program of China(2018YFB0704200)。
文摘We propose a unified thermodynamic model of flow-induced crystallization of polymer(uFIC),which incorporates not only the conformational entropy reduction but also the contributions of flow-induced chain orientation,the interaction of ordered segments,and the free energy of crystal nucleus and crystal morphology.Specifically,it clarifies the determining parameters of the critical crystal nucleus size,and is able to account for the acceleration of nucleation,the emergence of precursor,different crystal morphologies and structures induced by flow.Based on the nucleation barrier under flow,we analyze at which condition precursor may occur and how flow affects the competition among different crystal forms such as orthorhombic and hexagonal phases of polyethylene.According to the uFIC model,the different crystal morphologies and structures in the flow-temperature space have been clarified,which give a good agreement with experiments of FIC.
基金finacially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.2020YFA0405800)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51890872)the Anhui Provincial Key R&D Program (Nos.202004a05020075 and 202104a05020008)。
文摘We propose a theoretical approach to quantitatively account for the role of entanglement in the nucleation of polymer melts, which is the unique feature of polymer differentiated from small molecules. By performing molecular dynamics simulations, we obtain the nucleation barriers of polymer systems with different entanglement densities, which exhibits an opposite trend compared to the prediction of the classic nucleation theory(CNT). To amend the deficiency of the CNT in polymer crystallization, we introduce the entanglement free energy to reflect the role of entanglement in polymer nucleation. Specifically, the polymer nucleation not only involves free energies of monomers inside and on the surface of a nucleus as considered in the CNT, but also affects the entanglement network around the nucleus. Our theoretical approach provides a reasonable interpretation for the unsolved nucleation phenomena of polymers in simulations and experiments.