Study of the Crystal Growth Mechanism and Critical Secondary Nucleus Size of Poly(ethylene oxide)/Urea Inclusion Compound

Abstract

This study focuses on the crystal growth mechanism and the critical nucleus size of the inclusion compound formed between poly(ethylene oxide) and urea (PEO-U-IC) β spherulites crystallized from the melt. The surface nucleation mechanism during the crystal growth process is proposed based on the exponential dependence of the spherulite radial growth rate G on the negative reciprocal of product of the isothermal crystallization temperature multiplied by the degree of supercooling (−1/(TcΔT)). The radial growth rates G of PEO-U-IC β spherulites crystallized from the mixed melt with the gradual addition of the diluting agent N,N′-dimethyl urea (2MeU) were measured under a polarized optical microscope. On the basis of the first nucleation theorem proposed by Kashchiev, the critical secondary nucleus size n* during the surface nucleation is determined from the slope of linear fitting line of ln G versus ln x, where x is the mass fraction of urea in U/2MeU. The critical secondary nucleus consists of 3–9 entities with each entity of the inclusion compound crystal containing 1 urea and 1.5 ethylene oxide repeating units when the crystallization temperature ranges from 65 to 85 °C. The relationship that n* is proportional to 1/(ΔT)2 confirms that the critical secondary nuclei at the solid–melt interface are two-dimensional.