Publications
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Recent Publications
Temperature dependence of crystal – melt coexistence for supported polyethylene filaments
Da Huang, Thorsten Hugel, Bizan N. Balzer, Günter Reiter. Nature Communications 16 (2025) 11127
The broken symmetry of molecular interactions at interfaces is causing that crystals are often covered by a thin liquid layer of their own melt. Such crystal–melt coexistence can be related to phenomena of surface premelting, secondary nucleation and melting point depression, particularly important for small systems. Here, we employed intermittent-contact mode atomic force microscopy imaging on nanoscopic semi-cylindrical filaments of polyethylene on a substrate to observe that these filaments contained a crystalline core bounded by molten regions of rather uniform width, W_soft= (9 ± 2) nm at room temperature, which increased reversibly with temperature T. Filaments smaller than ca. 2∙W_soft (T) were completely molten. The values of W_soft (T) compared favorably with theoretically predicted characteristic length scales in the context of nucleation, surface premelting and the melting point depression of finite size crystals. Altogether, we show that these three phenomena are related and dominated by the intermolecular forces acting at crystal surfaces.
Crystallization of Layers of Strongly Adsorbed Poly(ethylene terephthalate) on Silicon Substrates
Liang Chen, Zhihang Bian, Xiaonan Li, Zhenwei Jiang, Jianquan Xu, Decai Lin, Guenter Reiter, Jichun You, Xinping Wang. Macromolecules 58 (2025) 12222–12230
We examined the crystallization behavior of ultrathin layers of strongly adsorbed poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) chains on silicon substrates, yielding a characteristic morphology of uniquely curved dendritic polymer crystals. The observed curvature resulted from bent edge-on lamellar crystals from which terraced flat-on branched lamellar crystals grew essentially from the convex outer side. The degree of bending increased with decreasing crystallization temperature and increasing strength of polymer/substrate interactions. We propose that unbalanced stresses acting on the fold surfaces of PET lamellar crystals, probably induced by strong interactions with the substrate, were responsible for the observed curvature of the lamellar crystals. (more...)
Crystallization and Melting of Polyethylene Strongly Cross-linked in the Molten State
Jingqing Li, Weihua Wang, Yunxiang Shi, Barbara Heck, Chuanfu Luo, Jesper de Claville Christiansen, Donghong Yu, Günter Reiter, Shichun Jiang. Soft Matter 21 (2025) 6422
We examined the crystallization and melting behavior of highly cross-linked polyethylene (xPE) samples, including structural characterization of the resulting crystalline domains. Using γ-ray irradiation, cross-linking was performed in the molten state and not in the solid state. This approach assured a statistical and homogeneous distribution of the cross-link points. Upon increasing the radiation dose, the molecular weight of the strands connecting the cross-link points reached values even lower than that of the strands between physical entanglements. (more...)
List of Publications
- Cooperative Rearrangements Leading to Long Range Order in Monolayers of Supramolecular Polymers
- F. Vonau, D. Aubel, L. Bouteiller, G. Reiter, L. Simon. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 086103 (2007)
- Relaxation of Residual Stress and Reentanglement of Polymers in Spin-Coated Films
- Pascal Damman, Sylvain Gabriele, Séverine Coppée, Sylvain Desprez, Didier Villers, Thomas Vilmin, Elie Raphaël, Moustafa Hamieh, Samer Al Akhrass, Günter Reiter. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 036101 (2007)
- Switching layer stability in a polymer bilayer by thickness variation
- J. P. de Silva, M. Geoghegan, A. M. Higgins, G. Krausch, M.-O. David, G. Reiter. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 267802 (2007)
- Avantages de la réflectometrie des neutrons pour l’étude des polymères en couches minces
- Günter Reiter, Mark Geoghegan. Collection SFN 8, 103-113 (2007)
- Morphologies of Polymer Crystals in Thin Films
- Günter Reiter, Ioan Botiz, Laetitia Graveleau, Nikolay Grozev, Krystyna Albrecht, Ahmed Mourran, Martin Möller. In "Progress in Understanding Polymer Crystallization". Eds. Günter Reiter and Gert Strobl, Lect. Notes Phys. 714, 179-200 (2007)
- Influence of Substrate Properties on the Dewetting Dynamics of Viscoelastic Polymer Films
- Moustafa Hamieh, Samer Al Akhrass, Tayssir Hamieh, Pascal Damman, Sylvain Gabriele, Thomas Vilmin, Elie Raphaël, Günter Reiter. J. Adhes. 83, 367-381 (2007)
- The Physics of Polymers, Concepts for Understanding Their Structures and Behavior.
- Gert Strobl. Third Revised and Expanded Edition, Springer 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-25278-8
- Growth kinetics of polymer crystals in bulk
- G. Strobl and T. Y. Cho. Eur. Phys. J. E 23, 55 (2007)
- A law controlling polymer recrystallization showing up in experiments on s-polypropylene
- Barbara Heck, Silvia Siegenführ, Gert Strobl and Ralf Thomann. Polymer, 48, 1352-1359 (2007)
- Stabilization, Reformation and Melting of Poly(L-Lactide) Crystallites
- Tai-Yon Cho, Barbara Heck, Gert Strobl. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 25, 83 (2007)
- The role of Frank elasticity in cholesteric elastomers
- Werner Stille, Jürgen Schmidtke. Eur. Phys. J. E 22, 117 (2007)
- Investigation of polymer crystallization kinetics with time dependent light attenuation measurements
- J. Fritsch, W. Stille, G. Strobl. Colloid Polym. Sci. 284, 620 (2006)
- Viscoelastic dewetting of constrained polymer thin films
- Pascal Damman, Séverine Sclavons, Sylvain Gabriele, Sylvain Desprez, Günter Reiter, Moustafa Hamieh, Samer Al Akhrass, Thomas Vilmin, Elie Raphaël. Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics 44, 3022-3030 (2006)
- Lamellar Crystal Orientations Biased by Crystallization Kinetics in Polymer Thin Films
- Yu Ma, Wenbing Hu, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 39, 5159-5164 (2006)
- Disentanglement Time of Polymers Determines the Onset of Rim Instabilities in Dewetting
- Sylvain Gabriele, Séverine Sclavons, Günter Reiter, Pascal Damman. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 156105 (2006)
- The Formation of Ordered Polymer Structures at Interfaces
- J.-U. Sommer and G. Reiter Advances in Polymer Science, 200, 1-36 (2006)
- Elastomer polymer brushes on flat surface by bimolecular surface-initiated nitroxide mediated polymerization
- Julien Parvole, Jean-Pierre Montfort, Günter Reiter, Oleg Borisov, Laurent Billon. Polymer, 47, 972-981 (2006)
- The role of nonlinear friction in the dewetting of thin polymer films
- T. Vilmin, E. Raphaël, P. Damman, S. Sclavons, S. Gabriele, M. Hamieh, G. Reiter. Europhys. Lett. 73, 906 - 912 (2006)
- Self-Assembly of Nanoparticle Ring Patterns
- Jürgen Parisi, Leonid V. Govor, Gottfried H. Bauer, Günter Reiter. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung Section A, A journal of physical sciences 61, 99-102 (2006)
- Bilayer formation in thin film of a binary solution
- Leonid V. Govor, Günter Reiter, Gottfried H. Bauer, Jürgen Parisi. Physics Letters A 353, 198–204 (2006)