Crystallisation Behaviour of Polymeric Materials

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Physics and Theory".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2023) | Viewed by 1514

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
CICECO Aveiro-Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portual
Interests: additive manufacturing; thermoplastics; composites; biobased and biodegradable composites; natural materials; cork; rheology; crystallization kinetics; 3D printing; moulding technology; nanoparticles; upcycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CICECO Aveiro—Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: additive manufacturing, biobased and biodegradable composites; biomaterials; bioproducts; glass; rheology; biofabrication; ceramics; T-RTM; selective laser melting; molding technology; 3D printing; nanoparticles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymers can be semi-crystalline or amorphous. The thermal behaviour (glass transition, melting and crystallisation temperatures) and crystalline structure (e.g., crystallite number, size and geometry) have an influence on polymers’ physical behaviour. Such features will thereby affect the applications of these materials. Crystallisation phenomena occur through nucleation and growth mechanisms of small molecules. Crystallites usually have a chain-folded structure, but many semi-crystalline polymers form spherulites. The number and size of spherulites will impact not only the crystallisation behaviour and thermal properties of the polymer but also the mechanical, optical, and chemical properties.

In industrial processes such as extrusion or injection moulding (IM), polymer materials experience non-isothermal rather than isothermal crystallisation. For IM, a higher crystallisation rate and higher degree of crystallinity are usually preferred to foster the production rate. One of the strategies applied to increase the crystallisation rate is the addition of nucleating agents. For instance, natural materials usually reveal nucleation activity and/or transcrystallisation.

The present Special Issue calls for papers from the research community that provide relevant information on the crystallisation behaviour of polymers. The issue aims to provide a platform to discuss new ideas and to promote new insights into this matter.

Dr. Sara P. Magalhães Da Silva
Prof. Dr. José Martinho Marques de Oliveira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • thermoplastics
  • composites
  • natural materials
  • graphene-based materials
  • inorganic fillers
  • crystallisation kinetics
  • nucleating agent
  • crystal morphology
  • nucleation mechanism
  • spherulites

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2185 KiB  
Article
Non-Isothermal Crystallization Kinetics of Polyamide 6/Graphene Nanoplatelets Nanocomposites Obtained via In Situ Polymerization: Effect of Nanofiller Size
by Joana Lagarinhos, Sara Magalhães da Silva and José Martinho Oliveira
Polymers 2023, 15(20), 4109; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15204109 - 17 Oct 2023
Viewed by 904
Abstract
Thermoplastic resin transfer molding (T-RTM) technology was applied to synthesize graphene nanoplatelets-based nanocomposites via anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP). Polyamide 6 (PA6) was obtained by AROP and was used as the polymeric matrix of the developed nanocomposites. The non-isothermal crystallization behavior of PA6 and [...] Read more.
Thermoplastic resin transfer molding (T-RTM) technology was applied to synthesize graphene nanoplatelets-based nanocomposites via anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP). Polyamide 6 (PA6) was obtained by AROP and was used as the polymeric matrix of the developed nanocomposites. The non-isothermal crystallization behavior of PA6 and nanocomposites was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Nanocomposites with 0.5 wt.% of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) with two different diameter sizes were prepared. Results have shown that the crystallization temperature shifted to higher values in the presence of GNPs. This behavior is more noticeable for the nanocomposite prepared with smaller GNPs (PA6/GN). The crystallization kinetic behavior of all samples was assessed by Avrami and Liu’s models. It was observed that GNPs increased the crystallization rate, thus revealing a nucleating ability, and also validated the reduction of half-time crystallization values. Such tendency was also supported by the lower activation energy values determined by Friedman’s method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crystallisation Behaviour of Polymeric Materials)
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