Spherulitic growth rates and morphology of absorbable poly(p-dioxanone) homopolymer and its copolymer by hot-stage optical microscopy

Hot-stage optical microscopy was used to study the crystal morphology, nucl eation, and spherulitic growth rates of poly(p-dioxanone) (PDS) homopolymer and an 89/11 PDS/glycolide segmented block copolymer. A wide range of crys tallization conditions were experimentally accessible, allowing the inspect ion of various morphological features and accurate estimations of character istic growth parameters, including radial growth and nucleation rates. Alth ough the regime analysis of the crystallization kinetics indicated no break s in the growth rate curve, the isothermal data were in excellent agreement with the Hoffman-Lauritzen theory. Spherulitic growth rates obtained from optical measurements are compared with values of the half-time of crystalli zation determined earlier by differential scanning calorimetry. (C) 2001 Jo hn Wiley & Sons, Inc.