Growth Rates of Edge-on Lamellar Crystals Confined in Polymer Thin Films

The growth rates of edge-on lamellar polymer crystals in variable thickness films were investigated in terms of dynamic Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The growth rates linearly decreased with decreasing film thickness for the thinner films and were nearly constant for the thicker films. The mean stem lengths (crystal thickness) were also constant in different thickness films. The crystal widths parallel to the film thickness increased more slowly with increasing film thickness in the thinner films than that in the thicker films, indicating they were restrained by the film thickness. We propose that the growth rate of edge-on lamellar crystals in thin films is dominanted by the crystal width in the thinner films and by the crystal thickness in the thicker films; the variation of the film thickness can change the three-dimensional shape of the crystal growth front, also affecting the growth rate of the edge-on lamellar crystal.