On the crystallization Kinetics in Natural Rubber

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical framework combining Flory theory and phase-field models to study nano-crystallite growth in polymers, revealing how topological constraints influence crystallization structures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel numerical approach integrating entropic elasticity and phase-field modeling to analyze crystallization kinetics under topological constraints.

Findings

Topological constraints significantly affect crystallization structures.

Different growth regimes lead to branched or stable nano-crystallites.

The framework can simulate strain-induced crystallization phenomena.

Abstract

In this article, we introduce a framework to investigate the growth of nano-crystallites in a polymer matrix numerically. This framework combines the Flory theory of entropic elasticity with phase-field approaches commonly used to model crystal growth. We investigate in particular the growth kinetics of a crystallite in the presence of topological constraints such as entanglements or cross-links, and show that depending on the coupling between the topological constraints and the growth kinetics various structures can be observed: branched structures looking like spherulites or stable nano-crystallites as observed in strain-induced crystallization.