AFM study of morphological development during the melt‐crystallization of poly(ethylene oxide)

Abstract

The atomic force microscope (AFM) has been used to investigate morphological development during the crystallization of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) from the melt. PEOs with molecular weights of 1 × 10 5 and 7 × 10 6 were used. Height and amplitude images were recorded, using the tapping mode. For both polymers, the mode of spherulite development varied with the velocity of the growth front. For slow growth velocities, the growth of the crystallites was linear, with growth initially occurring by single lamellae, later developing into growth arms by screw dislocation spawning of crystallites. At intermediate growth velocities, stacks of lamellae develop rapidly. The splaying apart of adjacent crystals and growth arms is abundant. The operation of growth spirals was observed directly in this growth velocity range. The crystals formed by the giant screw dislocations diverge immediately from the original growth direction, providing a source of interlamellar splaying. At low and intermediate velocities, the front propagates by the advance of primary growth arms, with the regions between the arms filled in by arms growing behind the primary front. At the highest velocity observed here, the formation of lamellar bundles and immediate splaying results in recognizable spherulites developing at the earliest stages of crystallization. The change from linear growth to splaying and nonlinear growth are qualitatively explained in terms of driving force, elastic resistance and the presence of compositional and/or elastic fields in the melt.