Crystallization behaviour of biodegradable poly(ethylene succinate) from the amorphous state

Nonisothermal and isothermal crystallization kinetics of biodegradable poly(ethylene succinate) (PES) from the amorphous state were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). For the nonisothermal crystallization, there were two crystallization exotherms upon heating from the amorphous state. One major crystallization exotherm located at low temperature corresponded to the real cold crystallization of PES, while the other minor one located at high temperature may correspond to the melt-recrystallization of the unstable crystals formed during the nonisothermal crystallization earlier. Several methods, such as Avrami equation, Tobin equation and Ozawa equation, were applied to describe the nonisothermal crystallization process of PES. Meanwhile, Avrami equation was also employed to study the isothermal crystallization of PES from the amorphous state. Similar to the nonisothermal crystallization the minor crystallization exotherm was also found in the DSC trace upon heating to the melt after the isothermal cold crystallization finished completely, and was attributed to the melt-recrystallization of the unstable crystals formed during the isothermal cold crystallization. Temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) was used in this work to investigate the origin of the minor crystallization exotherm located at high temperature, and the TMDSC experiments gave a direct evidence that the origin of the minor crystallization exotherm was from the melt-recrystallization of the originally existed unstable crystals formed through previous crystallization.