14264 heteroepitaxy IUPAC Gold Book - heteroepitaxy 10.1351/goldbook.14264 14264 current 1 Epitaxy between crystals of different substances. Heteroepitaxy may occur between crystals of different polymers. However, the heteroepitaxy of low-molecular-weight systems (e.g., alkanes) on polymer crystals (e.g., polyethylene), and of polymer crystals on crystals of low-molecular-weight substances can also occur. Heteroepitaxy has also been observed for polymer crystals on ionic substances and minerals like clay and mica. For some polymers, heteroepitaxy may be used to favor by nucleation the development of a crystalline phase that is not obtained normally. Polymer crystals with unusual orientations with respect to the substrate may be obtained by epitaxial crystallization involving heteroepitaxy. Heteroepitaxy is often used to enhance nucleation and reduce spherulites’ size in commercial processes. PAC, 2011, 83, 1831. 'Definitions of terms relating to crystalline polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 1861 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-11-13) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14264/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14264/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14264/plain Citation: 'heteroepitaxy' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14264 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-06-07T03:20:27+00:00