Modeling the Dielectric Relaxation in Semicrystalline Polymers -- Understanding the Role of the Interphase between the Amorphous and Crystalline Domains

Abstract: Semicrystalline polymers (SCP) represent important class of materials used in many applications from packaging to transportation to electronics to pharmaceuticals. Understanding the structure and dynamics of the crystalline and amorphous fractions within SCP is an important challenge for both experimentalists and theoreticians. Recently, Cheng et al. (S. Cheng et al., J. Chem. Phys. 160, 114904 (2024)) utilized Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) to explore the relaxation time profiles within the amorphous region of a semi-crystalline poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) with ordered alternative stacking of crystalline/amorphous phases. Here, we build on those initial results and model the relaxation time distribution using the combination of the Doolittle free volume theory (FVT) and the compressible Self-Consistent Field Theory (cSCFT). We show that the new modeling framework successfully captures the temperature and position dependence of the local relaxation time of the semicrystalline PLLA above the glass transition temperature of the amorphous region. Finally, we derive a new empirical equation for the relaxation time profiles in amorphous regions of SCPs.