Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are unique nanostructured materials with remarkable physical, mechanical and electronic properties [1][2][3][4]. These properties make them attractive for applications in many scientific and technological fields such as electronic structures [5], polymer composites [6], and biological systems [7]. Among these potential applications, the prospect of obtaining high-performance CNT based polymeric nanocomposites has attracted the efforts of researchers in both academia and industry [8]. The combination of organic polymer components with CNT fillers in a single material has extraordinary significance for the development of advanced materials with remarkable mechanical, electrical, thermal and multifunctional properties [9][10][11][12]. Moreover, polymer/CNT nanocomposites challenge traditional filled polymers (loadings of 20 wt% or more) in many of these areas by providing similar physical enhancements but with as little as about 1 wt% addition of dispersed nanotubes [13]. Previous CNT based polymeric nanocomposites reports include increased modulus, impact strength, heat distortion temperature, and barrier properties with decreased thermal expansivity [14][15][16]. In addition, these nanocomposites are finding potential applications such as electrostatically dissipative materials and aerospace materials [17]. Currently, several processing methods, including melt mixing, solution process and in-situ polymerization [18][19][20] Abstract. Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics were characterized by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis on neat semicrystalline syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) and its nanocomposites with polystyrene (PS) functionalized full-length single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT-PS), which was prepared by copper (I) catalyzed click coupling of alkyne-decorated SWNTs with well-defined, azide-terminated PS. The crystallization behavior of neat sPS polymer was compared to its SWNT based nanocomposites. The results suggested that the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of sPS/SWNT-PS nanocomposites depended significantly on the SWNT-PS contents and cooling rate. The incorporation of SWNT-PS caused a change in the mechanism of nucleation and the crystal growth of sPS crystallites, this effect being more significant at lower SWNT-PS content. Combined Avrami and Ozawa analysis was found to be effective in describing the non-isothermal crystallization of the neat sPS and its nanocomposites. The activation energy of sPS determined from nonisothermal data decreased with the presence of small quantity of SWNT-PS in the nanocomposites and then increased with increasing SWNT-PS contents.

The crystallization behavior of random block copolymers of (tetramethyl‐p‐silphenylenesiloxane) and dimethylsiloxane has been studied over a wide range of temperature and composition. The copolymer melting temperature, glass transition temperature, rate of crystallization, crystallinity, and density decrease in magnitude as the dimethylsiloxane block content are raised in this two‐component system. The crystal end‐surface (interfacial) energy increases as the dimethylsiloxane mole fraction decreases in accord with other morphological observations. The morphological changes observed in these copolymers are consistent with the conclusions deduced from the crystallization kinetics. Negatively, birefringent spherulites are observed over the entire crystallization range investigated.

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