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Structure-Property Evolution During Polymer Crystallization, Deepak Arora

Open Access Dissertations

The main theme of this research is to understand the structure-property evolution during crystallization of a semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer. A combination of techniques including rheology, small angle light scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and optical microscopy are applied to follow the mechanical and optical properties along with crystallinity and the morphology. Isothermal crystallization experiments on isotactic poly-1-butene at early stages of spherulite growth provide quantitative information about nucleation density, volume fraction of spherulites and their crystallinity, and the mechanism of connecting into a sample spanning structure. Optical microscopy near the fluid-to-solid transition suggests that the transition, as determined by time-resolved mechanical …