Rodlike crystals of polyoxymethylene (POM) were isothermally grown on the (001) face of NaCl or KCl from 0.1 wt% solutions (solvent: nitrobenzene, acetophenone, benzyl alcohol, m-cresol). Transmission electron microscopic observation in bright and dark-field imaging modes and selected-area electron diffraction analysis successfully evidenced that POM chain stems in the rodlike crystals are set parallel to the substrate surface and also perpendicular to the rod axis. That is to say, each rodlike crystal was well identified as an edge-on lamella. Further, it was confirmed that the width of bright striations in the dark-field images, which correspond to the crystalline-core thickness of the edge-on lamella, depended on the crystallization temperature (T c) and increased with increasing lamellar thickness. The crystalline-core thickness was, however, inevitably smaller than the corresponding lamellar thickness for any T c. It was accordingly concluded that the POM edge-on lamella has a surface layer (20%–25% of the lamellar thickness) containing folds on each side of the lamella, the layer is presumed to be composed of adjacent re-entrant folds which have some fluctuation in contour length and resultant fluctuation in conformation.
Посилання на статтю:
A TEM study on polyoxymethylene edge-on lamellae crystallized epitaxially on alkali halides / Masahiro Fujit, Masaki Tsuji, Shinzo Kohjiya // Polymer. – 1999. – N 40. – P. 2829–2836.
