Abstract: The crystallization behavior of silane-crosslinked LDPE and peroxide-crosslinked LDPE have been compared by using DSC and WAXD techniques. It is found that the crystallinity and melt point of the peroxide-crosslinked LDPE are lower than those of the silane crosslinked LDPE when their crosslinking densities are of the same value. DSC measurements show that after crossinking the Avrami exponents (n) have no significant change, but the rate constants of crystallization decrease and the half crystallization times increase, whereas the variation range for the peroxide crosslinked LDPE is greater than that for the silane-crosslinked LDPE.

Key words: peroxide-crosslinked LDPE, silane-crosslinked LDPE, crosslinking density, crystallinity, non-isothermal crystallization kinetics