THE USE OF LIGHT-MICROSCOPY FOR INVESTIGATIONS OF EPITAXIAL-GROWTH OF POLYMERS ON POLYMERIC SUBSTRATES

In order to study the oriented (epitaxial) crystallization of thermoplastic polymers on oriented polymer substrates, generally the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used. With this instrument, the crystallized material can easily be resolved and orientation relationships can be monitored by electron diffraction. Disadvantages are the time consuming sample preparations and difficulties in the in-situ observations of the crystallization events, because of the radiation sensitivity of the polymer crystals. It is demonstrated that these disadvantages of the TEM can be eleminated by the use of different methods of light optical contrasts under specific preparation conditions of the samples and that the optical microscopy being a supplementary method to the TEM for investigations of epitaxial crystallization.