Density-functional theory of the crystallization of hard polymeric chains

We study how connectivity influences the crystallization of fully flexible model polymers by applying a recently advanced amalgamation of the Green-fu nction description of polymers, and the density-functional theory of simple liquids. Our calculations show that the model polymers only crystallize if the effective Kuhn length of the chains is sufficiently large compared wit h the range of the hard-core interaction between the segments. Also shown i s the importance of bond-length fluctuations for the stability of the cryst al phase. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.