Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of nylon 66/LCP blends

The non isothermal crystallization kinetics and melting behaviour of nylon 66/thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) blends was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In the blends, LCP, at low concentrations, accelerated the bulk crystallization rates of the matrix. However, at high concentrations, it posed a hindrance to the crystallization process. The Avrami, modified Avrami, Ozawa and Mo models were used to fit the experimental data. The effective energy barrier was estimated using Friedman method. The inclusion of LCP had led to lowered energy barrier to crystallization and increased nucleation activity. Moreover, application of Lauritzen Hoffman surface nucleation theory revealed that the addition of LCP, in low concentrations, reduced the work of chain folding and increased the regime I to II transition temperature.