Intramolecular Crystal Nucleation Favored by Polymer Crystallization: Monte Carlo Simulation Evidence.
We performed dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of half-half binary blends of symmetric (double and mutual) crystallizable polymers. We separately enhanced the driving forces for polymer-uniform and polymer-staggered crystals. Under parallel enhancements, polymer-uniform crystals exhibit faster nucleation and growth, with more chain folding and less lamellar thickening, than those in polymer-staggered crystals. We attributed the results to intramolecular crystal nucleation, ruined by enhanced polymer-staggered crystallization. Our observations provide direct molecular-level evidence to support the fact that intramolecular crystal nucleation is favored by polymer crystallization in quiescent solutions and melt, which yields chain folding for the characteristic β-sheet or lamellar morphology of macromolecular crystals.
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, China.
Rong
R
Zhang
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, China.
Liyun
L
Zha
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University , 210093 Nanjing, China.
Wenbing
W
Hu