Structural studies on polymer whiskers by transmission electron microscopy: I. Morphological and high-resolution observations

The structures of poly(p-hydroxybenzoic acid) (PHBA) whisker crystals and crystalline fine fibrils of copolymer prepared from p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) and 2-hydroxy-6-naphthoic acid (HNA), namely poly(HBA/HNA) (monomer molar ratio: 97/3), were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As for a PHBA whisker, microfibril-like bright regions were recognized in the 210 dark-field image. In the high-resolution TEM image of another PHBA whisker, however, lattice fringes were continuous through the whisker, showing that the whisker is highly crystalline and almost perfect. On the other hand, in the high-resolution images of poly(HBA/HNA) fine fibrils, granular crystallites (20-40 nm in lateral dimension) were observed. The lattice fringes in the crystallites were not successfully indexed with the orthorhombic unit cells of the homopolymer crystal, suggesting the coexistence of another different structure as a minor component.