Isothermal Crystallization of Short Polymer Chains Induced by the Oriented Slab and the Stretched Bundle of Polymer: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Information on the interfacial interaction is vital in understanding the crystallization of short polymer chains around oriented nuclei. However, this interaction is difficult to observe at the atomic level. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the structural formation of polymer chains induced by the highly oriented slab or the stretched bundle of polymer chains. The results show that the surface-induced crystallization of polymer chains is greatly influenced by the foreign surface on the crystal structure and the morphology of the polymers, hence providing molecular-level support for previous experimental observations [Lotz et al. Macromolecules 1993, 26, 5915 and Yan et al. Macromolecules 2009, 42, 9321]. The order parameter S and the configurations show that the ability of the polypropylene (PP) slab to induce the polyethylene (PE) melt crystallization is weaker than that of the PE slab and that the short PE chains display multiple orientations on the PP slab. In addition, the crystallization rate was found to be dependent on the lattice matching between the free chains and the substrates on the contact lattice planes.