Flow-induced crystallization studied in the RheoDSC device: Quantifying the importance of edge effects

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Flow-induced crystallization is investigated through short-term shear flow experiments on poly(1-butene) in the RheoDSC device. We demonstrate that the DSC signal shows contributions from spherulitic morphology in the center of the sample and oriented structures at the edge of the sample, the latter being induced by edge effects at the free surface. It is shown that, although small in terms of volume, the crystallization at the edge has a dominating influence on the measured rheology. We show how these kinds of effects can be recognized in stand-alone rheometric studies of flow-induced crystallization.