Polymer spherulites: A modern assessment

Knowledge and understanding of spherulite sand spherulitic growth in polymers have advanced considerably in recently years. Morphology shows that the key phenomenon leading to spherulitic growth was the finite branching angle between adjacent dominant lamellae indicating the presence of a local repulsive force in the region of the branch point. Thus, mechanisms so far identified were that divergence occurs either because adjacent lamellae were repelled by molecular cilia close to their branch point and/or because their rough (fold) surfaces do not fit well together.