Crystal Growth Rate in a Blend of Long and Short Polymer Chains

Since short polymer chains have a higher mobility than long molecules, conventional expectations are that the growth rate, G, of polymer crystals should decrease as the concentration of large chains increases in a binary blend. Here we present results on G as the blend concentration, ϕ, is varied from short chains of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), which are well above the entanglement molecular weight, to long PEO chains. Contrary to the simple …