Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(L-lactide)

The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) in comparison with a polylactide stereocopolymer (PLA(98)) containing 98% L-lactyl and 2% D-lactyl units were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry to examine the effect of the configurational structure. Avrami, Ozawa and Liu models were applied to describe the crystallization process. The Avrami analysis exhibited two stages in non-isothermal crystallization, while the Ozawa and Liu models did not successfully describe the crystallization behaviour. The activation energy was calculated with Kissinger's method. The energy barrier was found to be the same for PLLA and PLA98 with a value of 126 kJ mol(-1). (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry