Spinodal-assisted crystallization in polymer melts

Abstract

Recent experiments in some polymer melts quenched below the melting temperature have reported spinodal kinetics in small-angle X ray scattering before the emergence of crystalline structure. To explain these observations we propose that the coupling between density and chain conformation induces a liquid-liquid binodal within the equilibrium liquid--crystalline solid coexistence region. A simple phenomenological theory is developed to illustrate this idea, and several experimentally testable consequences are discussed. Shear is shown to enhance the kinetic role of the hidden binodal.

5 pages, three figures, REVTEX, to be published in Physical Review Letters

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