Effects of polydispersity index and molecular weight on crystallization kinetics of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS)

Abstract Isothermal crystallization kinetics of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) is reported in this work with Avrami analytical method. It was found that the spherulite growth rate and overall crystallization rate depend on the crystallization temperatures, average molecular weight ( M ¯ W ) and polydispersity index (PDI). The experimental results for the melt and cold crystallization processes of sPS revealed that the PDI and M ¯ W exhibit pivotal effects on the crystallization rate, which increases with the decrease of M ¯ W and PDI.