Roles of cyclic units in copolyethylene crystallization: A molecular dynamics simulation

Yong Biao Yang, Ze Sheng Li, Hua Yang, Zhong Yuan Lu, Chia Chung Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of several polyethylene copolymer chains containing 1,2-, 1,3- or 1,4-disubstituted cyclopentane or hexamethylene structures in the main chain (with 500 CH2) are performed to investigate the influence of cyclic units on the crystallization properties of polyethylene (PE). From the isothermal relaxation process it is found that they generally collapse to a globule via a local collapse process. The copolymer chains containing 1,2-disubstituted cycloparaffin structures form more kinks and take shorter time to totally collapse into a single globule than the others. Moreover, from the morphology of the crystal structures after annealing it is found that the copolymer chains containing 1,2-disubstituted cycloparaffin structures can yield more ordered structures with cyclic units rejected to the fold surface. For the copolymer chains containing 1,3- or 1,4-disubstituted cycloparaffin, the lamellar structures are not perfect and some cyclic units are always incorporated in the crystalline phase.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9047-9055
Number of pages9
JournalPolymer
Volume45
Issue number26
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2004
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Crystallization
  • Molecular dynamics simulation
  • Polyethylene

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