Douglas, J.
, Giuntoli, A.
and Chremos, A.
(2020),
Influence of Polymer Topology on Crystallization in Thin Films, Journal of Chemical Physics
(Accessed May 10, 2025)
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Influence of Polymer Topology on Crystallization in Thin Films
Published
Author(s)
, Andrea Giuntoli, Alexandros Chremos
Abstract
We investigate how varying molecular topology of polymers influences crystallization in thin polymer films. In particular, we simulate linear and star polymers having a progressively increasing number of arms (f ≤ 16) for fixed molecular mass of polymer for a model linear polymer exhibiting crystallization in a thin film geometry, but no apparent crystallization in the corresponding bulk material. The degree of crystallization of the polymer film at long times decreases progressively with increasing f, and no crystallization is observed beyond f = 8. Crystallization for smaller values of f develops as a sigmoidally-shaped wavefront initiating from the supporting crystalline interface. We suggest that large shape fluctuations and the competition of length scales of star polymers with high f lead to inhibited crystallization.Citation
Journal of Chemical Physics
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
polymer crystallization, star polymers, glass-formation, crystallization front, short chain branching
Citation
Issues
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Created January 22, 2020, Updated April 27, 2020