Kinetics of isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization of nylon 1313

The crystallization process of a new polyamide, nylon 1313, from the melt has been thoroughly investigated under isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. During isothermal crystallization, relative crystallinity develops in accordance with the Avrami equation with the exponent n ≈ 2 based on DSC analysis. Under nonisothermal conditions, several different analysis methods were used to elucidate the crystallization process. The Avrami exponent n is greater in the isothermal crystallization process, indicating that the mode of nucleation and the growth of the nonisothermal crystallization for nylon 1313 are more complicated, and that the nucleation mode might include both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation simultaneously. The calculated activation energy is 214.25 kJ/mol for isothermal crystallization by Arrhenius form and 135.1 kJ/mol for nonisothermal crystallization by Kissinger method, respectively. In addition, the crystallization ability of nylon 1313 was assessed by using the kinetic crystallizability parameters G. Based on this parameter, the crystallizability of many different polymers was compared theoretically. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1415–1422, 2007