Isothermal crystallization kinetics of commercial PA66 and PA11

Abstract This study is aimed at investigating the crystallization kinetics of two structurally related polymers, Nylon 6,6 (PA66) and Nylon 11 (PA11), by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the scope of a logistic-based model using a model fitting approach. By this method, the values of the rate parameters for each specific temperature are obtained from fitting all points of the crystallization exotherm that were accurately recorded at that temperature. This method differs from Arrhenius-based model fitting approaches, in which the initial and final parts of the exotherm do not usually match the shape of Arrhenius-based models and are therefore discarded for fitting. Furthermore, in other kinetic approaches that fall outside the scope of this article, kinetic parameters are typically obtained from specific points in the crystallization exotherm, and good fits cannot generally be obtained nor is that the goal of those approaches. The DSC curves of both polymers obtained at different temperatures are analysed to determine the crystallization kinetics. One of the most insightful parameters of the model is the crystallization rate. Its dependence on temperature is analysed for both polymers and compared to others. The other parameters can also help to better understand some of the crystallization features of these polymers. In addition, the information retrieved from this study can be useful to adjust processing conditions.