Non-isothermal melt- and cold-crystallization kinetics of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

Non-isothermal melt- and cold-crystallization and subsequent melting behavior of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The crystallization kinetics was studied by a direct fitting of the experimental data to various macrokinetic models, namely Avrami, Tobin and Ozawa models. All of the macrokinetic models were found to describe the experimental data for both the melt- and the cold-crystallization processes fairly well. For both the melt- and the cold-crystallization processes, the inversed half-time of crystallization and both the Avrami and the Tobin rate constants were all found to increase with increasing cooling or heating rate. For the melt-crystallization process, the Ozawa rate constant was found to decrease, while, for the cold-crystallization process, it was found to increase, with increasing temperature. Finally, the effective energy barrier for both the melt- and the cold-crystallization processes was found to decrease in its magnitude with increasing relative crystallinity.