Effects of short-chain branches on strain-induced polymer crystallization

We performed dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice polymer model to investigate strain-induced crystallization behaviors of short-chain branched polymers with variable sequence distributions, branch numbers and lengths, and their blending compositions with linear polymers. The results revealed that the branch density and distribution bring dominant effects. In the blends, there is no phase separation prior to crystallization, except that strain-enhanced mixing is temporarily hindered by chain folding upon crystallization. Our observations shed lights onto the strain-induced crystallization of short-chain branched polymers. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical Industry