STUDIES ON THE CRYSTALLIZATION AND MELTING OF NYLON-66 .2. CRYSTALLIZATION BEHAVIOR AND SPHERULITIC MORPHOLOGY BY OPTICAL MICROSCOPY

Negative spherulites and non-birefringent spherulites (the latter arising in two different temperature regions) and the so-called aggregates of nylon 66 have been reproduced and the conditions of their formation have been redefined. Growth rates were measured and the dependence on crystallization temperature (T-c) of both growth rates and spherulite forms were studied. Unusual effects were observed in the T-c range where the growth of negative and positive spherulites compete. The most conspicuous, qualitatively new observations relate to crystallization memory effects arising from the presence of negative (and non-birefringent) spherulites. It is found that the localities of such spherulites retain a memory, i.e. they remain morphologically distinct after melting and recrystallization in specific ways, more precisely dependent on the highest melt temperature to which the sample had been exposed with conspicuous consequences for the final crystalline texture. The sum total of observations suggests a gradation of non-equilibrium melt states beyond the optical melting point (as opposed to residual seed crystals) which influences subsequent crystallization, with some suggestions with respect to this melt structure being made.