Influence of the Temperature of Crystallization on the Melting of Crystalline Rubber
Abstract Data presented in this communication show an instance in which melting of a crystalline material is very much dependent on the temperature at which the crystals have been formed. It is well known that many substances in which crystallization is relatively slow can be crystallized at different temperatures in a range below the melting point, but no effect of the crystallization temperature on the temperature of melting seems to have been previously reported. The quantitative results for crystalline rubber, the material under investigation, are shown in Figure 1. The crystallization of unvulcanized rubber in the unstretched state has been found to occur at temperatures between about −40° C and 13° C. The time required for crystallization is about one year at 13° C, about ten days at 0° C, and a few hours at −20° C. Below −40° C the mobility is presumably insufficient for the formation of crystals. Crystallization and fusion are accompanied by changes in volume, heat capacity, light absorption, birefringence, x-ray diffraction, and mechanical properties such as hardness. The volume decreases about 2.5 per cent on crystallization, and the magnitude of the change is little influenced, if at all, by the temperature. Fusion, as measured by the volume increase, is found to be independent of the rate of heating, and to occur over a range of five or ten degrees.