| Summary: | The kinetics of the non-isothermal and isothermal crystallization of the crystalline smectic B phase (soft crystal B, SmB<sub>cr</sub>) in 4-n-butyloxybenzylidene-4′-n′-octylaniline (BBOA) was studied by a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and polarized optical microscopy (POM). On cooling, part of the SmB<sub>cr</sub> phase undergoes conversion to a crystalline phase and the remainder forms a glassy state; after the glass softens, crystallization is completed during subsequent heating. By analyzing the area of the crystal growing in the texture of SmB<sub>cr</sub> as a function of time, the evolution of degree of crystallinity, <i>D</i>(t), was estimated. It was demonstrated that upon heating, <i>D</i>(t) follows the same Avrami curve as the crystallization during cooling. Non-isothermal crystallization observed during slow cooling rates (3K/min ≤ ϕ ≤ 5K/min) is a thermodynamically-controlled process with the energy barrier Ea ≈ 175 kJ/mol; however, the crystallization occurring during fast cooling (5 K/min > ϕ ≥ 30K/min) is driven by a diffusion mechanism, and is characterized by E<sub>a</sub> ≈ 305 kJ/mol. The isothermal crystallization taking place in the temperature range 274 K and 281 K is determined by nucleus formation.
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