SURFACE-MORPHOLOGY STUDY OF POLY(ETHYLENE OXIDE) CRYSTALS BY SCANNINGFORCE MICROSCOPY

Scanning force microscopy (SFM) images of the surfaces of poly(ethylen e oxide) (PEG) crystals revealed oriented fibril-like growth with incr easing annealing temperature. Some clear nucleation centres on the mel t-crystallized surface and typical lamellar morphologies with a step h eight of 11.7 +/- 0.5 nm were observed. Molecular folding structure (n ear four-fold symmetry structure with the nearest neighbour spacing of 7.4 Angstrom) was also imaged on the PEO single crystal with SFM. The spacings and angles of the periodic array in the molecular image were consistent with the positions of the top of the molecular chain folds on the PEO single crystal surface.