Functionalized phenoxy-imine catalyst for synthesizing highly crystalline nascent UHMWPEs: 2: The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics towards the nascent less entangled UHMWPEs

The morphologies and molecular weight characteristics of nascent UHMWPEs were reported in our previous work. In order to understand the effect of entanglement state on non-isothermal crystallization behaviors and kinetics of the nascent UHMWPEs, a comprehensive thermal analysis was implemented. The nascent UHMWPEs were confirmed as nascent less entangled UHMWPEs from annealing-crystallization-melting cycles. Jeziorny and Mo methods were applied to describe the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the UHMWPEs. The effects of entanglement density (molecular weight) and cooling rate on the crystallization temperature and rate were investigated. The crystallization temperature was seldom affected by molecular weight, but decreased with increasing cooling rate. The crystallization enthalpy showed an increasing trend with decreasing molecular weight or cooling rate. The crystallization rate increased with increasing cooling rate or decreasing molecular weight.