Non‐isothermal crystallization of poly(ethylene oxide)/silver nanoplate composites

Abstract

The non-isothermal crystallization of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/silver nanoplate composites was studied using differential scanning calorimetry. The non-isothermal crystallization was analyzed by combining the Avrami and Ozawa equations. It was found that the Avrami exponent for neat PEO ranges from 2.51 to 2.53, whereas it ranges from 2.54 to 3.16 for its composites, indicating that the spherical crystal morphology does not change with the addition of nanoplates. However, the rate determination of crystal growth transfers from diffusion to nucleation. The crystallization half-time showed an increase with the addition of silver nanoplates in PEO, indicating that the overall crystallization rate of PEO decreases with the addition of nanoplates. However, the nucleation activity is larger than unity in the composites and the value increases with an increase in the nanoplate content. This behavior implies that the nanoplates act as anti-nucleating agents to hinder nucleation.

Effect of polyethylene glycol-grafted graphene on the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(ethylene oxide):lithium perchlorate electrolyte systems

“…F(T) can be regarded as the non-isothermal crystallization rate parameter while the lower values indicate higher crystallization rates [27]. According to this method, the plot of ln ϕ versus ln t at a certain relative crystallinity should result in a straight line.…”

“…Adhikari and Lozano used DSC to investigate the crystallization behavior of PEO/carbon nanofiber systems under nonisothermal conditions and showed that all carbon nanofiber loadings retard the crystallization of PEO [25]. The effect of two-dimensional silver nanoplatelets on the non-isothermal crystallization of PEO has been discussed by Rahmansyah et al [26,27]. They found that the overall crystallization rate of nanocomposites was slower than that of neat PEO and the radius of spherulites was greater.…”

Crystallization kinetics of poly(ethylene oxide) confined in semicrystalline poly(vinylidene) fluoride

“…The Avrami model has been applied to crystallization on cooling by a conversion of the temperature to time scales . Also a combination of Avrami and Ozawa methods has been proposed …”