Polymer, Vol.39, No.8-9, 1591-1596, 1998
Molecular weight dependence of lateral growth rate of polyethylene (I) - an extended chain single crystal
Molecular weight (M) dependence of lateral growth rate (V) of an extended chain single crystal (ECSC) of polyethylene (PE) crystallized at high pressure (P = 0.4 GPa) was studied. We obtained a well-known relation that V = V(0)exp(-B/Delta T), where V-0 and B are constants related to a self-diffusion constant of molecules and free energy of forming a critical nucleus and Delta T is degree of supercooling. We showed that V-0 decreases with increasing M and B does not depend on hi, which are similar to results reported by Hoffman et al. for a folded chain crystal (FCC) of PE. This indicates that M dependence of V is controlled by the self-diffusion process of molecules, while that is not done by the nucleation process. We obtained an experimental formula, V(M) proportional to D(M) proportional to M-H, where D is a self-diffusion constant and H is a constant, H = 0.7. A similar relation has been shown, reported by Hoffman et al. and by us in a separate paper. But the H given by us was larger, H = 1.8. It should be noted that the H of a FCC is much larger than that of an ECSC. We will propose a new mechanism from this significant difference on H in a separate paper, that M dependence of V is mainly controlled by the surface diffusion process of chain molecules on a surface of a crystal not by the self-diffusion process within the melt.