Temperature-modulated DSC applied to the transformation kinetics of polymer crystallization

Temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (T-MDSC) has been applied to the isothermal crystallization of poly(vinylidene fluoride), isotactic polypropylene, syndiotactic polypropylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(caprolactam) and poly(ethylene succinate). It has been confirmed that the imaginary part of the apparent heat capacity determined by T-MDSC gives the temperature dependence of linear growth rate. The proper choice of the baseline for the phase angle of the complex heat capacity has been discussed and it is concluded that the change in the crystallinity evaluated from the integration of mean exothermic heat flow can be used as the baseline.