Isothermal crystallization of polyamide 6 (PA6) in a wide temperature range is studied by a modified flash scanning chip (FSC). The flash scanning chip allows us to mimic the real-life processing conditions by controlling the heating and cooling at rates up to 4000 K/s. The modified chip also enables us the first time to perform non-damaging repeatable calorimetry, scattering, spectroscopy, and morphology studies on a single sample. The sample is free from any possible crystallization during cooling due to the chip's ultrahigh scanning rate and versatility. It is demonstrated that PA6 can develop two different pseudohexagonal phases at low temperature and α phase at high temperature. A clear discontinuity in crystallization kinetics and changes in micro-/ nano- morphology have been found in the polymorphic transition region between the pseudohexagonal and α phases. The effect of cooling rate on the formation of different polymorphs will also be discussed.

Revisiting the isothermal crystallization of PA6 using an integrated multi-functional fast scanning calorimetry based platform

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.