Dendritic polymer spherulites: birefringence correlating with lamellae assembly and origins of superimposed ring bands

Dendritic spherulites are one type of diversified ways of crystal aggregations into micrometer-size consortia by kinetics-driven assembly from nanometer-size crystal plates (i.e., lamellae or single crystals). Crystallized polymers can exist in states of different degrees of order, which lead to the resulting assembled morphologies are of non-equilibrium supramolecular hierarchical patterns of crystal structures. Diffusion-controlled growth patterns emerge, which change the details of dendritic morphology depending on T_c (degree of super-cooling), polymer-diluent interactions, confinement. Investigation to the diversified patterns of lamellar assembly into polymer dendritic spherulites has come to several key conclusions. This article reviews and summarizes the top-surface-relief morphology and interior dissections of polymer dendritic spherulites, where the dendrites may be composed of ringed stripes or fibrous cilia crystals. The results yield interesting consistency for constructing workable mechanisms to account for each type of morphologies with respect to their molecular weights and crystallization kinetics conditions (i.e., T_c, space confinements, film thickness, blend interaction, as well as blend composition).