Abstract
Self-nucleation of crystallization of polyamide 11 (PA 11) has been studied by thermo-optical microscopy. Spherulitically arranged lamellar crystals with a melting peak temperature of 187 °C formed via heterogeneous nucleation on slow cooling the equilibrium melt and subsequent reorganization on slow heating. As a function of the maximum temperature of the melt after their complete melting, subsequent non-isothermal crystallization accelerates, caused by presence of self-nuclei. The number of self-nuclei decreases with increasing temperature of the melt and approaches zero at a temperature about 13 K higher than the melting temperature of the initially present crystals. Crystallization of the melt containing self-seed leads to formation of a distinctly finer spherulitic morphology than melt-crystallization in absence of self-seed at identical conditions.
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