Differences in Crystallization Behaviors between Cyclic and Linear Polymer Nanocomposites

Abstract

Cyclic polymers exhibit fascinating crystallization behaviors owing to the absence of chain ends and more compact conformations. In the current simulation, dynamic Monte Carlo simulations were performed to reveal the underlying mechanism of the effect of chain topology and chain length on crystallization of polymer in solutions containing one-dimensional nanofiller. Simulation results suggested that the filled cyclic polymers exhibit higher melting temperature, higher crystallization temperature, and faster crystallization rate than the analogous linear polymers of identical chain length, especially in the systems with relatively short chains. Based on the Thomson-Gibbs equation, we theoretically analyzed the difference in the melting point between the cyclic and linear polymers under different chain lengths, and derived the dependence of the ratio of the melting point of the linear polymers to that of its cyclic analogs on chain length. In addition, it was also observed that the nanofiller can induce the formation of nanohybrid shish-kebab structure during isothermal crystallization of all systems.