Novel aspects related to nucleation and growth of solution grown polyethylene single crystals

Within an intense research study concerning the theme \"organization and reorganization of soln. grown polyethylene (PE) single crystals\", the present part is focused on the nucleation and growth behavior of such crystals. Beside the well-known crystn. behavior, several novel features have been obsd. Growth rates and the influence of the actual concn. on the growth rate have been analyzed using the technique of isochronous decoration. The most important results are that the growth rate decreases with decreasing concn. and that in our study the concn. coeff. a is unit and independent of the crystn. temp. Another feature is that the applied self-seeding temp., above or below the dissoln. temp. of PE in the solvent, dets. the final organization of the crystals. Detailed anal. of the crystal fold surfaces using the n-alkane decoration technique has shown that the fold surfaces are regularly organized and have pronounced growth sectors when prepd. at low seeding temps., but have no order of the fold surface when prepd. using seeding temps. above the dissoln. temp. of PE