Differential Scanning Calorimetry of Polymers

This chapter presents the basics of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis and its correlation to polymer morphology for semicrystalline polymeric materials. It concentrates on the applications that are important for the study of polymer thermal properties, nucleation, and crystallization and their relationship with morphology. Standard DSC tests at constant scanning rates can be employed to extract the following data from amorphous or semicrystalline polymers: glass transition temperature, crystallization temperature, melting temperature, latent heat of fusion or enthalpy of fusion, latent heat of crystallization or crystallization enthalpy and crystallinity degree. In order to understand the origin of the transitions detected by DSC, it is useful to understand the differences between first and second-order transitions. The chapter concludes that DSC is one of the most powerful techniques to correlate thermal properties and morphology, although it must always be complemented by other techniques, such as PLOM, SEM, TEM, SAXS, and WAXS.