Crystal unfolding and chain disentanglement during semicrystalline polymer dissolution

Mathematical models developed describe the unfolding of polymeric crystals in the presence of a solvent followed by their subsequent disentanglement. A thermodynamic model considering the free energy changes during crystal unfolding was proposed to obtain an expression for the unfolding rate. A simplified version of this expression, assuming uniform crystal size, was incorporated into a continuum model to predict the dissolution kinetics of a semicrystalline polymer slab. The model yielded predictions of the crystalline and solvent volume fi actions as a function of position within the slab, in addition to changes in the fraction of polymer dissolved as well as the degree of crystallinity of the polymer as a function of time. The degree of crystallinity of the polymer decreased with time and the plot of the fraction of the polymer dissolved as a function of time exhibited Case II behavior The model predictions agreed will with experimental results obtained during dissolution of semicrystalline poly(vinyl alcohol) in water.