Surface-induced Polymer Crystallization

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering and Beijing Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China 

Polymer Morphology Principles, Characterization, and Processing, First Edition. Edited by Qipeng Guo. 2016 John Wiley Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

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The purpose of this chapter is to provide a context as to how the foreign surface can affect the crystallization process of a polymer. It contains a brief introduction on the possible influences of foreign surfaces on the crystallization kinetics of polymers and the resultant unique crystal structure and morphology of polymers in contact with different surfaces. The advantages of surface-induced polymer crystallization to fabricate polymeric materials with improved property or enhanced efficiency is described with some elaborately selected examples. 

Li H, Yan S. Surface-induced polymer crystallization and the resultant structures and morphologies. Macromolecules 2011 44 417- 28. 

Mesoscale crystalline morphology, crystallinity, and molecular orientation in these deposited thin films strongly depend on molecular properties [17,18], chemical nature of the solvent, and processing condition, resulting in very different field-effect mobilities [15,23,36]. Specifically, due to heterogeneous surface-induced (epitaxy) crystal growth as a nature of semicrystalline polymers, fine control of substrate properties and solvent evaporation rate tends to yield favorable molecular orientation of these polymers (i.e., edge-on structure with respect to dielectric substrates) in solution-deposited films [24,66]. 

Moreover, if the fiber is in the crystalline state, as in the case of surface-induced polymer epitaxy, lattice matching between the polymer and fiber crystals provides another favorable situation for transcrystallization. For example, the existence of excellent matching of nylons and iPP with high-modulus graphitic carbon fibers has led to the transcrystallization of nylons and iPP around the carbon fibers [135]. Taking this into account, the case in which both fiber and matrix are of... 

The appearance and disappearance of some of the induced nuclei suggest that they are formed at the surface as a result of a trapped polymer chain in the parent lamellae. In addition when a polymer crystallizes very quickly, stresses... 

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