Molecular dynamics modeling of orientation-induced nucleation in short alkanes : toward molecular modeling of flow-induced crystallization in polymers

Abstract

The enhancement of the primary flow-induced nucleation rate in short chain alkanes (C20 and C150) has been examined for different levels of orientation by atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. The nucleation rate has been found to change drastically by varying average molecular orientation and temperature. For example, it is possible to accelerate nucleation kinetics by three orders of magnitude at the same temperature, but varying the average level of orientation (P2 (cos [Theta])) . The size of the critical nucleus has been found to increase with the level of undercooling Tm - T decrease, consistent with the classical nucleation theory. Our atomnistic molecular dynamics simulation model is even tractable at the small levels of undercooling, thus clearly demonstrating the effects of orientation (melt anisotropy) on nucleation kinetics when thermal nucleation is expected to be negligible. Furthermore, we calculate the influence of melt anisotropy on the growth rate. As expected, the growth rate is also altered by melt anisotropy. Furthermore, the growth rate maximum always occurs at the temperature above the nucleation kinetics maximum.