The Kinetics of Extended Chain Crystallization in Polymer Processing

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9301693 Tree Flow-induced crystallization of semi-crystalline polymers to produce extended chain crystals provides an opportunity to produce lightweight, high-strength materials from inexpensive feed stocks by carefully controlling the processing variables. The project will bring together researchers from the fields of polymer processing, thermodynamics and computer simulation to study flow- induced crystallization kinetics. The research will use a specially designed rheometer and a newly developed rheo-optic technique to obtain in-situ, quantitative measurements of flow- induced crystallization kinetics in crystallizable polymers. Anew model of polymer crystallization kinetics, based on current molecular theory for polymer molecules, will be developed and incorporated into a simulation of polymer processing in order to optimize the design of polymer processing operations with respect to the degree of extended chain crystallinity, which in turn is directly related to the mechanical properties of the product. The research may allow the production of high performance plastic parts from inexpensive polymer materials through the careful control of processing variables.