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Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Microfluidic Preparation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Actuators
Published on: May 20, 2018
Folding of Polymer Chains in the Early Stage of Crystallization
Shichen Yuan1, Zhen Li1, You-Lee Hong1
1Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325-3909, United States.
Abstract:
Understanding the structure formation of an ordered domain in the early stage of crystallization is one of the long-standing issues in polymer science. In this study, we investigate the chain trajectory of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) formed via rapid and deep quenching, using solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Comparisons of experimental and simulated 13C-13C double quantum (DQ) buildup curves demonstrated that individual iPP chains adopt adjacent re-entry sequences with an average folding number ⟨n⟩ = 3-4 in the mesomorphic form, assuming an adjacent re-entry fraction ⟨F⟩ of 100%. Therefore, long flexible polymer chains naturally fold in the early stage of crystallization, and folding-initiated nucleation results in formation of mesomorphic nanodomains.
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