A. TodaHiroshima University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan
C. TomitaHiroshima University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan
M. HirosakaHiroshima University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan 1-7-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8521 Japan
A new method is presented to analyze the irreversible melting kinetics of polymer crystals with a temperature modulated differential
scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). The method is based on an expression of the apparent heat capacity,
. The present paper experimentally examines the irreversible melting of nylon 6 crystals on heating. The real and imaginary
parts of the apparent heat capacity showed a strong dependence on frequency and heating rate during the melting process. The
dependence and the Cole-Cole plot could be fitted by the frequency response function of Debye's type with a characteristic
time depending on heating rate. The characteristic time represents the time required for the melting of small crystallites
which form the aggregates of polymer crystals. The heating rate dependence of the characteristic time differentiates the superheating
dependence of the melting rate. Taking account of the relatively insensitive nature of crystallization to temperature modulation,
it is argued that the ‘reversing’ heat flow extrapolated to ω → 0 is related to the endothermic heat flow of melting and the
corresponding ‘non-reversing’ heat flow represents the exothermic heat flow of re-crystallization and re-organization. The
extrapolated ‘reversing’ and ‘non-reversing’ heat flow indicates the melting and re-crystallization and/or re-organization
of nylon 6 crystals at much lower temperature than the melting peak seen in the total heat flow.