Strong memory of strain-induced copolymer crystallization as revealed by Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

Abstract We performed dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of strain-induced crystallization of homopolymer and random copolymers under cyclic loading of strains. We found that since the second loading random copolymers shift down the onset strain of crystallization and raise up the crystallinity, in contrast to homopolymer. We attributed the strong memory to the remaining of sequence-length segregation raised by copolymer crystallization during the first loading of strains. The mechanism is consistent with that for the strong memory of copolymer crystallization under cyclic cooling, as revealed by previous experiments and simulations. Our results showed a new effect of chain-sequence defects on the cyclic loading performance of rubbers.