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Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry
By using an atomic force microscope (AFM) coupled to a fast scanning chip calorimeter (FSC), AFM-tip induced crystal nucleation/crystallization in poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) has been studied at low melt-supercooling, that is, at a temperature typically not assessable for melt-crystallization studie...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234991/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34205303 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13122008 |
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author | Zhang, Rui Du, Mengxue Zhuravlev, Evgeny Androsch, René Schick, Christoph |
author_facet | Zhang, Rui Du, Mengxue Zhuravlev, Evgeny Androsch, René Schick, Christoph |
author_sort | Zhang, Rui |
collection | PubMed |
description | By using an atomic force microscope (AFM) coupled to a fast scanning chip calorimeter (FSC), AFM-tip induced crystal nucleation/crystallization in poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) has been studied at low melt-supercooling, that is, at a temperature typically not assessable for melt-crystallization studies. Nanogram-sized PCL was placed on the active/heatable area of the FSC chip, melted, and then rapidly cooled to 330 K, which is 13 K below the equilibrium melting temperature. Subsequent isothermal crystallization at this temperature was initiated by a soft-tapping AFM-tip nucleation event. Crystallization starting at such surface nucleus led to formation of a single spherulite within the FSC sample, as concluded from the radial symmetry of the observed morphology. The observed growth rate in the sub-micron thin FSC sample, nucleated at its surface, was found being much higher than in the case of bulk crystallization, emphasizing a different growth mechanism. Moreover, distinct banding/ring-like structures are observed, with the band period being less than 1 µm. After crystallization, the sample was melted for gaining information about the achieved crystallinity and the temperature range of melting, both being similar compared to much slower bulk crystallization at the same temperature but for a much longer time. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8234991 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82349912021-06-27 Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry Zhang, Rui Du, Mengxue Zhuravlev, Evgeny Androsch, René Schick, Christoph Polymers (Basel) Communication By using an atomic force microscope (AFM) coupled to a fast scanning chip calorimeter (FSC), AFM-tip induced crystal nucleation/crystallization in poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) has been studied at low melt-supercooling, that is, at a temperature typically not assessable for melt-crystallization studies. Nanogram-sized PCL was placed on the active/heatable area of the FSC chip, melted, and then rapidly cooled to 330 K, which is 13 K below the equilibrium melting temperature. Subsequent isothermal crystallization at this temperature was initiated by a soft-tapping AFM-tip nucleation event. Crystallization starting at such surface nucleus led to formation of a single spherulite within the FSC sample, as concluded from the radial symmetry of the observed morphology. The observed growth rate in the sub-micron thin FSC sample, nucleated at its surface, was found being much higher than in the case of bulk crystallization, emphasizing a different growth mechanism. Moreover, distinct banding/ring-like structures are observed, with the band period being less than 1 µm. After crystallization, the sample was melted for gaining information about the achieved crystallinity and the temperature range of melting, both being similar compared to much slower bulk crystallization at the same temperature but for a much longer time. MDPI 2021-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8234991/ /pubmed/34205303 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13122008 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Communication Zhang, Rui Du, Mengxue Zhuravlev, Evgeny Androsch, René Schick, Christoph Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title | Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title_full | Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title_fullStr | Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title_full_unstemmed | Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title_short | Surface Crystal Nucleation and Growth in Poly (ε-caprolactone): Atomic Force Microscopy Combined with Fast Scanning Chip Calorimetry |
title_sort | surface crystal nucleation and growth in poly (ε-caprolactone): atomic force microscopy combined with fast scanning chip calorimetry |
topic | Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8234991/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34205303 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13122008 |
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