| Abstract: | Observations of a sample of poly(ethylene-co-octene)in apolarizing optical microscope reveal peculiarities in itscrystallization behavior. When cooled from the melt to a fixedcrystallization temperature, at first a structure of diffuseappearance with variations on the length scale of micrometersforms rapidly. The transformation into the final semi-crystallinestate then proceeds in two ways, by a continuous change of theinner structure of  m-sized objects and by the growth ofspherulites. Time dependent small angle and wide angle X-rayscattering experiments corroborate the occurrence of the twocrystallization mechanisms. Atomic force microscopy indicates thatthe change of the inner structure of the preformed objects is dueto an in-filling of crystallites. |
