CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS OF PURE AND FIBER-REINFORCED POLY(PHENYLENE SULFIDE)

Isothermal DSC investigations on pure as well as glass, carbon, and aramid fibre-reinforced poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS) were carried out in order to obtain informations on the crystallization kinetics, that is, the Avrami exponent, constant, half-time of crystallization, and (final) degree of crystallinity. PPS is a typical representative of semicrystalline polymers with a maximum degree of crystallinity of about 60%. The Avrami exponent reaches values from n = 2.1-2.7 depending on fibre type but independent of crystallization temperature. The system aramid fibre/PPS has a much shorter half-time of crystallization than the other three systems that could be attributed to the high nucleation effect of the aramid fibre surface to PPS. As a consequence of the high nuclei density a transcrystalline zone is built up around the aramid fibre. The relatively low value of the Avrami constant was discussed and a computer simulation attempt was made to understand the measured value quantitatively. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.