Spinodal-assisted crystallization in polymer melts
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
Recent experiments in some polymer melts quenched below the melting temperature have reported spinodal kinetics in small-angle X ray scattering before the emergence of crystalline structure. To explain these observations we propose that the coupling between density and chain conformation induces a liquid-liquid binodal within the equilibrium liquid--crystalline solid coexistence region. A simple phenomenological theory is developed to illustrate this idea, and several experimentally testable consequences are discussed. Shear is shown to enhance the kinetic role of the hidden binodal.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9806024,
title = {Spinodal-assisted crystallization in polymer melts},
author = {Peter D. Olmsted and Wilson C. K. Poon and T. C. B. McLeish and N. J. Terrill and A. J. Ryan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9806024},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, three figures, REVTEX, to be published in Physical Review Letters