Title: morphology
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - morphology
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.MT07285
Status: current

Definition
Shape, optical appearance, or form of phase domains in substances, such as high polymers, polymer blends, composites, and crystals.

Note
For a polymer blend or composite, the morphology describes the structures and shapes observed, often by microscopy or scattering techniques, of the different phase domains present within the mixture.

Related Terms
- composite: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/CT07545
- polymer blend: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04736
- scattering: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05487

Source
- PAC, 2004, 76, 1985. 'Definition of terms related to polymer blends, composites, and multiphase polymeric materials (IUPAC Recommendations 2004)' on page 2001 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac200476111985)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/MT07285/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/MT07285/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/MT07285/xml

Citation: Citation: 'morphology' 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.MT07285
License: 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.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: 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.
Accessed: 2026-04-19T06:00:54+00:00