Heterogeneous Nucleation in Semicrystalline Polymers

Nucleation of polymer crystals is a key issue in polymer science and technology. Indeed, it is of outmost importance for industrial application of semicrystalline polymers, since the nucleation rate often dictates the processing time of the products, and strongly affects the resulting mechanical or optical properties of the material. Despite this a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon is still lacking, as testified for instance by the fact that the scouting of new heterogeneous nucleating agents for polymers is still mostly driven by empiricism. With this thesis, we aim to provide novel quantitative approaches to quantify the heterogeneous nucleation efficiency of different surfaces in various, industrially relevant, systems, such as polymer/fiber composites or nucleated polymers. The presented results are a contribution towards the clarification of the mechanism of heterogeneous nucleation in semicrystalline polymers.