Abstract
One of the most interesting characteristics of crystals is their profound morphology. Polyhedron or polygon shapes are often observed in single crystals. The hierarchical structure and morphology of polymer crystals can be described at unit cell, single crystal and spherulite length scales. This article discusses the role of translational symmetry in the evolution of polymer crystal morphology from unit cell to single crystal level. We divide single crystal level crystalline structure into two categories: shape-translational symmetry commensurate crystals (SSCs) and shape-translational symmetry incommensurate crystals (SSICs). The former case includes classical lamellae, dendritic single crystals and epitaxy-driven crystal morphologies. In SSICs, we emphasize crystals’ non-flat shapes, which are incommensurate with translational symmetry in Euclidean space. Classical helicoidal, tubular and scrolled crystals are discussed in the context of SSICs. We further highlight the recently discovered spherical crystalsomes which are formed via miniemulsion solution crystallization. This article provides an overview of polymer crystal morphology based on the interplay between crystal shape and translational symmetry, which may be used to study and design morphologies of semicrystalline polymers and copolymers.
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