Morphological differences in semicrystalline polymers: Implications for local dynamics and chain diffusion

Morphological differences in semicrystalline polymers due to different crystallization conditions have implications for the chain motion. The local dynamics in the noncrystalline regions of solution-crystallized linear polyethylene is lower than in a melt-crystallized sample, but the opposite is observed for chain diffusion between noncrystalline and crystalline regions. The activation enthalpy for chain diffusion, however, is the same, indicating that entropic differences in the noncrystalline regions strongly influence the chain diffusion of the same polymer in different morphologies. © 2007 The American Physical Society.