https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.14262
Polymer crystallization occurring inside elongated cavities, spheres, galleries, or layers formed by a host material different from the polymer.
Notes:
- Morphology and polymorphism may be significantly affected by confined crystallization.
- At least one dimension of the cavities must be of the order of a few nanometers, i.e., close to typical dimensions of a polymer crystallite and, in particular, to lamellar thickness.
- Stems may be isolated in the cavities of the frequently nonpolymeric host material, as in the cases of zeolites and the fully trans-form of perhydrotriphenylene in the crystalline state. In such cases, the polymer stems are usually highly disordered.
- Stems may aggregate in small, disordered bundle crystals or in relatively large lamellar crystals, typically within layered inorganic materials.
- Spherical structures may result from the crystallization of one of the two components in a heterogeneous polymer blend (e.g., in a polyethylene-polycarbonate blend) while lamellar, hexagonally packed cylindrical and inverse cylindrical morphologies are frequent in block copolymers with a crystallizable block (e.g., in poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polystyrene)).