Morphology and crystal structure of cold-crystallized syndiotactic polystyrene

Scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, IR spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analyses were used to characterize the unique morphology of cold-crystallized syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS). Cold-crystallization of sPS produced only α-type unit cell packed into crystalline domains of different morphologies. The morphology contains a granular-sphere texture when cold-crystallized at low temperatures while high-temperature cold-crystallization produced additional sheaf-like lamella radiating out from the central spheres. Details of this interesting morphological feature are expounded in the paper.