Crystal structures, polymers local organization

So far in this book, we have focused on aspects of polymer synthetic chemistry and what can be considered local structure, the arrangements of units in a chain and how these can be characterized spectroscopically. In the next few chapters our focus shifts to a more global scale and involves the physics and physical chemistry of polymer materials. We will start with the shapes or conformations available to chains in solution and the solid state, how these chains interact with one another and other molecules (e.g., solvents), and the- conditions under which chains can organize and aggregate into larger scale structures, as in crystallization (or, more briefly, some of the fascinating morphologies formed by block copolymers). 

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