Habits of Polyethylene Crystals Grown from Paraffinic Solvents and from the Melt

Abstract

A study has been made of the morphology of fractionated linear polyethylene crystallized from solution in n‐alkanes. Crystals have been found whose habits, though markedly different from any described in this polymer, are similar to, and provide useful models for, the radial crystalline units in melt‐grown spherulites. Fold domain structures and departures from planarity in these crystals are also novel and correlate closely with interface morphology during growth. Crystals, or aggregates of crystals, grew preferentially in the b direction under all conditions of observation; this applies equally to dendritic growth in monolayersingle crystals and to spherulites of sufficiently compact texture as to exhibit cooperative twisting of orientation.