Isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) under the influence of self-seeding nucleation

Abstract

The effect of self-seeding nucleation on the crystallization behavior of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) was studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated that the crystallization temperature of PTT notably increased after self-seeding nucleation. Avrami equation was applied in the analysis of the isothermal crystallization process of PTT. The resulting average value of the Avrami exponent at n = 3.34 suggests that primary crystallization may correspond to a three-dimensional spherulitic growth. Selfseeding nucleation, leading to a decrease in active energy for crystallization and chain folding work, promotes the overall crystallization process of PTT.