CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS OF HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT N-ALKANES

The growth rate data reported by Bassett and collaborators (Sutton, S. J.; Vaughan, A. S.; Bassett, D. C. Polymer 1996, 37, 5735) for the 12 -alkane C246H494 have been analyzed using nucleation theory pertinent to chain molecules of low molecular weight. The same value for the int erfacial free energy governing nucleation was found irrespective of wh ether the mature crystallites that developed were chains folded, with a spherulitic superstructure (low-temperature crystallization), or wer e non-spherulitic with extended chain (high-temperature crystallizatio n). Reasons for this behavior are advanced and the important implicati ons to polymer crystallization discussed.