1987 Volume 44 Issue 12 Pages 893-896
The solid-state morphology of poly (hexamethylene p. p′-bibnzoate) (BB-6) and its dependence on the liquidcrystalline texture was studied by transmission electron microscopy. Thin films of BB-6 were prepared by casting a solution of the polymer in tetrabromoethane onto mica at 150°C. The temperature of the thin film was controlled on a hot-plate. The thin, liquid-crystalline films (210°C) which formed from the isotropic melt (260°C) were cooled gradually to room temperature. Long, plate-like structures composed of stacked lamellar crystals were formed in a thin film prepared from the thermotropic melt. Some of the long plates branched off or sometimes coalesced with neighboring ones to form a higher order, supermolecular structure. Spherulitic structures developed by the concentrical arrangement of lamellar crystals were also observed. These structures were taken to be derived from a smectic texture noted in the liquid-crystalline state of BB-6. An attempt was made to explain such a morphology in terms fo Dupan's cyclide by assuming that a hyperbola in the cyclide is parallel to the surface of the BB-6 film.
