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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 

2025-rei-05.jpgWe 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

jiang2025.jpgWe 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

Semicrystalline Non-Isocyanate Polyhydroxyurethanes as Thermoplastics and Thermoplastic Elastomers and Their Use in 3D Printing by Fused Filament Fabrication
Vitalij Schimpf, Johannes B. Max, Benjamin Stolz, Barbara Heck, and Rolf Mülhaupt. Macromolecules 52 (2019) 320-331
Self-Assembly of Oligo(phenylene-thiophene)s on Monolayer Graphene: Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Natalia Borzdun, Victor Nazarychev, Sergey Larin, Guenter Reiter, Sergey Lyulin. J. Phys. Chem. C, 123 (2019) 859–867
Functional macromolecular systems: kinetic pathways to obtain tailored structures
V. Abetz, K. Kremer, M. Müller, and G. Reiter. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 220 (2019) 1800334
Growth Kinetics of Stacks of Lamellar Polymer Crystals
Sumit Majumder, Hanna Busch, Purushottam Poudel, Stefan Mecking, and Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 51 (2018) 8738–8745
Self-Interference of Exciton Emission in Organic Single Crystals Visualized by Energy-Momentum Spectroscopy
Christian Schörner, Sajedeh Motamen, Laurent Simon, Günter Reiter, Richard Hildner. ACS Omega 3 (2018) 6728–6736
Formation of Periodically Modulated Polymer Crystals
Purushottam Poudel, Sumit Majumder, Sivasurender Chandran, Hui Zhang, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 51 (2018) 6119–6126
Generating Nanoscopic Patterns in Conductivity Within a Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Crystal Via Bias-controlled Scanning Probe Nanolithography
Binghua Wang, Bin Zhang, Changyu Shen, Jingbo Chen, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 51 (2018) 7692-7698
Systematic Control of Self-Seeding Crystallization Patterns of Poly(ethylene oxide) in Thin Films
Binghua Wang, Shaohua Tang, Yan Wang, Changyu Shen, Renate Reiter, Günter Reiter, Jingbo Chen, Bin Zhang. Macromolecules 51, 1626–1635 (2018)
Tuning relaxation dynamics and mechanical properties of polymer films of identical thickness
Marwa Kchaou, Pierre Alcouffe, Sivasurender Chandran, Philippe Cassagnau, Günter Reiter, and Samer Al Akhrass. Phys. Rev. E 97, 032507 (2018)
Highly n-doped graphene generated through intercalated terbium atoms
L. Daukiya, M. N. Nair, S. Hajjar-Garreau, F. Vonau, D. Aubel, J. L. Bubendorff, M. Cranney, E. Denys, A. Florentin, G. Reiter, and L. Simon. Phys. Rev. B 97, 035309 (2018)
Formation of Periodically Modulated Polymer Crystals
Purushottam Poudel. Inauguraldissertation 2018
Pneumatically Controlled Nanofluidic Devices for Contact-Free Trapping and Manipulation of Nanoparticles
Michael Adrian Gerspach, Nassir Mojarad, Deepika Sharma, Yasin Ekinci,and Thomas Pfohl. Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2018, 1800161
Monitoring single-cell gene regulation under dynamically controllable conditions with integrated microfluidics and software
M. Kaiser, F. Jug, T. Julou, S. Deshpande, T. Pfohl, O. K. Silander, G. Myers, E. van Nimwegen, Nature Communications 9, 212 (2018)
Growth Kinetics of Stacks of Lamellar Crystals in Polymer Thin Films
Sumit Majumder. Inauguraldissertation 2018
Optical studies on indicators of order and disorder in films and crytals of a bulky substituted polythiophene
Fanuel Mugwanga Keheze. Inauguraldissertation 2018
Multiple structural transitions in Langmuir monolayers of charged soft-shell nanoparticles
Ahmed El-Tawargy, David Stock, Markus Gallei, Wael Ramadan, Mamdoh Shams El-Din, Günter Reiter, Renate Reiter. Langmuir 34, 3909−3917 (2018)
Thermodynamic origin of multi-layer structures in Langmuir polymer films
Volker Knecht, Günter Reiter, Renate Reiter. Langmuir 33 (2017) 11399–11405
Structure Formation in Langmuir Peptide Films As Revealed from Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Volker Knecht, Günter Reiter, Helmut Schlaad, and Renate Reiter. Langmuir 33 (2017) 6492-6502
Schnecken als lebende 3D-Drucker: freie Formen für die Architektur von morgen
Christoph Allgaier, Benjamin Felbrich, Frederik Wulle, Emna Khechine, James H. Nebelsick, Achim Menges, Günter Reiter, Renate Reiter, Armin Lechler, Alexander Verl, Karl-Heinz Wurst. Baubionik – Biologie beflügelt Architektur, Publisher: Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart 2017
Signatures of Melting and Recrystallization of a Bulky Substituted Poly(thiophene) Identified by Optical Spectroscopy
Fanuel Keheze, Dominic Raithel, Tianyu Wu, Daniel Schiefer, Michael Sommer, Richard Hildner, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 50 (2017) 6829–6839
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