Miércoles 14 - 9:30
Melt memory in semi-crystalline polymers: facts and unresolved issues
When polymer chains crystallize, they experience a dramatic change in their segmental conformation, transitioning from isotropic random chains to well-ordered extended chain segments in fixed and symmetric conformations determined by the resulting crystal structure (e.g., chains closely packed in orthorhombic or monoclinic unit cells). If the crystals are heated above their melting point, they require a specific temperature and duration to revert their ordered conformation into an isotropic random coiled melt. When the temperature is slightly above the melting point, the chains retain a memory of the conformation they had in the crystals. The exact nature of these memory regions in the melt is unknown, but their presence can induce significantly higher crystallization temperatures when cooling from the melt compared to an isotropic melt. Such accelerated crystallization and thus solidification can have practical consequences for material properties and even applications. In this lecture, we will present a review of the results our group has gathered to understand the effects of several variables on melt memory: chemical structure, molecular weight, and copolymerization. Additionally, we will discuss the limitations of the experimental techniques and the uncertainties regarding the nature of melt memory.
POLYMAT and Department of Polymers and Advanced Materials: Physics, Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 3, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Plaza Euskadi 5, Bilbao 48009, Spain.