Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Hierarchical orientational relaxation inducing shish-kebab formations in polymer melt crystallization
1College of Science, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China. mxiangwang@gmail.com
Abstract:
We studied athermal relaxation of bulk extended chains by means of dynamic Monte Carlo simulations, and we got intermediately relaxed melts with a memory of chain orientations but no more crystalline order. The orientational memory in the melts dominated the crystal orientation and nucleation types. The difference in crystallization behaviors induced by orientational relaxation suggested the mechanism of hierarchical crystallization. Thus, we studied the isothermal crystallization of a binary blend of different relaxed chains. We observed the prior crystallization of less relaxed chains could act as a shish to induce epitaxial crystallization of more relaxed chains to form kebabs. This mechanism had demonstrated the structure of precursors and gave insight into the formation of shish-kebab crystals in polymer melts. The results suggested that in flow-induced polymer crystallization the hierarchical orientational relaxation of chains decided the formation of shish-kebabs.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Ziegler–Natta Chain-Growth Polymerization: Overview
Recrystallization: Solid–Solution Equilibria
Step-Growth Polymerization: Overview
Many natural and synthetic polymers are produced by...
Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism

