MORPHOLOGY OF POLYMERS

A survey is presented on the principles of polymer morphology. The major portion is concerned with placing existing observational material in wider perspectives, not featuring elsewhere, while the concluding parts invoke new material such as is pointing to new trends in the subject also beyond the confines of polymer science. The main emphasis is on the interrelation between thermodynamical and kinetical factors in phase transformations as generating and determining the morphology of the resulting phases. Special attention is being given to two-fluid separation in solutions and to crystallization, and to the interrelation between the two, where both can pertain. Within the subject of crystallization the essentials and consequences of chain folding are being presented together with the relation between chain folding and chain extension as emerging in ongoing works. In the latter context the importance of phase size is emerging as a factor not only determining thermodynamic stability per se but also the stability sequence, including the possibility of sequence inversion, of the different phases an issue of potential generality. The important role of metastable phases, true and size determined, and the hierarchical nature of the morphology is a connecting thread throughout.