Lamellar Order and the Crystallization of Linear Chain Solid Solutions

Single crystals have been grown from binary n -paraffin solid solutions and from multicomponent waxes and low molecular weight polyethylenes. Although conformational and longitudinal disorder must affect the lamellar interface in multilamellar crystals, the interlamellar interaction still must remain regular enough to account for the observed long-range correlation, over large distances (e.g. 10 μm), of successive stacked lamellae. Surface decoration experiments on mixed chain monolamellae with polymethylene fragments as well as atomic force microscopy verify this assertion that the lamellar surface is still flat and well-ordered.