title: Experimental observation of effects of seeds on polymer crystallization.
abstract: The effects of two seeds on the melt crystallization of isotactic polypropylene were experimentally investigated. The seed, which has the flat surface full of a nonuniform size distribution, has provided a right surface pattern to activate effectively the heterogeneous nucleation. In contrast, the seed, which has the curved surface full of a uniform size distribution, has failed to induce the heterogeneous nucleation. The results from the present work have also shown that the seed with strong nucleating ability leads to the formation of large crystals but the seed without nucleating ability does not influence much the crystal size.
authors.affiliation: Cooperative Research Center for Polymers, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Peng-Wei
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Edward
authors.forename: Lance
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nichols
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D044367:Phase Transition; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011126:Polypropylenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D011126:Polypropylenes