Abstract
| - The crystal transformation in lamellar crystals of polybutene-1 grown from an amyl acetatesolution was studied by cryogenic high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The shape of thetransformed trigonal (form-1) crystal domains in the surrounding tetragonal (form-2) crystal wassuccessfully revealed. Along with the nucleation of the “untwinned” form-1, the existence of anothernucleation mechanism which creates the “twinned” form-1 was suspected. Each crystallite of form-1 wascomparatively large, and accordingly, the growth of the form-1 crystal was thought to progress not stemby stem but by pulling in the molecular chains from the surrounding form-2, creating new stems of form-1. Once form-1 has nucleated, mutual orientation between the form-1 and the form-2 domains appearedto be insignificant for further growth. The shape of the form-1 domain was irregular, and no specificcrystallographic direction along which the form-1 domain tends to grow was found.
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