Transitions from solid to liquid in isotactic polystyrene studied by thermal analysis and X-ray scattering

At temperatures above the relaxation of RAF, either one or two major crystal melting endotherms are observed in standard DSC, dependent upon crystallization temperature. However, using quasi-isothermal temperature modulated DSC, we always observed two reversing melting endotherms. The effects of annealing on iPS structure during the quasi-isothermal measurement were assessed using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Combining the DSC and SAXS results, a model for the melting of iPS lamellae at low heating rates is presented.