Crystallinity of bulk polyacetylene

The fine structure of bulk trans-polyacetylene (PA) was investigated by x-ray diffraction. The degree of crystallinity 0.81, determined by Ruland's method, was significantly higher than the value for linear polyethylene. The disorder parameter k was 5, which is much larger than the value for polyethylene. These results led us to propose that PA crystals are more disordered than PE crystals owing to the higher rigidity of PA chains. Small-angle x-ray diffraction indicated that the crystal morphology is of the extended-chain type rather than lamellar. All results obtained in this work showed that the fine structure of PA bulk is such as to facilitate electrical conduction of bulk PA.