Giant Single Crystals of Poly (ethylene oxide)

The preparative method of giant single crystals of PEO and the experimental results of them by x-ray diffraction and electron microscopy are described. The crystallization of PEO was carried out in a two dimensional crystallization apparatus. From the tridirectional x-ray diffraction patterns on the resulting platelike crystals, it was confirmed that these crystals have a single crystal-like orientation at high supercoolings, the [401] axis is parallel to a growing direction and the [001] axis is perpendicular to the wide surface, and a double orientation at low supercoolings, two axes of [421] and [421] are parallel to a growing direction and the [001] axis is perpendicular to the wide surface.