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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
- Measurements of periodically perturbed dewetting force fields and their consequences on the symmetry of the resulting patterns
- Konstantinos Roumpos, Sarah Fontaine, Thomas Pfohl, Oswald Prucker, Jürgen Rühe, and Günter Reiter. Scientific Reports 11 (2021) 13149
- Changes in surface free energy and surface conductivity of carbon nanotubes/polyimide nanocomposite films induced by UV irradiation
- Baode Zhang, Marialaura Clausi, Barbara Heck, Susanna Laurenzi, Gabriella Santonicola, Janis Kleperis, Andris Antuzevičs, Guenter Reiter, Andrey Aleshin, Anatoly Lobach. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 13 (2021) 24218–24227
- Surface-modified elastomeric nanofluidic devices for single nanoparticle trapping
- Deepika Sharma, Roderick Y. H. Lim, Thomas Pfohl and Yasin Ekinci. Microsystems & Nanoengineering 7 (2021) 46
- Optimization of Nanofluidic Devices for Geometry-Induced Electrostatic Trapping
- Deepika Sharma, Roderick Y. H. Lim, Thomas Pfohl, and Yasin Ekinci. Part. Part. Syst. Charact. 2021, 38, 2000275
- Tuning topography and patterns of thin polymer films on structured substrates
- Konstantinos Roumpos. Inauguraldissertation der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik 2021. DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/194127
- Morphological transitions in langmuir films of a diblock copolymer from polyethylene glycol and poly-L-lactide
- Emna Khechine. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie, 2021
- High-throughput injection molding of transparent fused silica glass
- Markus Mader, Oliver Schlatter, Barbara Heck, Andreas Warmbold, Alex Dorn, Hans Zappe, Patrick Risch, Dorothea Helmer, Frederik Kotz, Bastian E. Rapp. Science 372 (2021) 182-186
- Formation of large polymer crystals from metastable solutions
- Tianyu Wu. Inauguraldissertation der Fakultät für Chemie und Pharmazie 2020, DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/167415
- Exploring pathways to equilibrate Langmuir polymer films
- Abhijna Das, Sebastian Noack, Helmut Schlaad, Günter Reiter, Renate Reiter. Langmuir 36 (2020) 8184–8192
- Energy transport and light propagation mechanisms in organic single crystals
- Bernd Wittmann, Stephan Wiesneth, Sajedeh Motamen, Laurent Simon, Françoise Serein-Spirau, Günter Reiter, and Richard Hildner. Journal of Chemical Physics 153 (2020) 144202
- Large quantum efficiency enhancements of pristine conjugated polymer MEH-PPV by interlayer polymer diffusion
- Po-Tsun Chen, Ya-Wei Yang, Günter Reiter, Arnold C.-M. Yang. Polymer 204 (2020) 122753
- Formation of Needle-like Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Crystals from Metastable Solutions
- Tianyu Wu, Thomas Pfohl, Sivasurender Chandran, Michael Sommer and Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 53 (2020) 8303–8312
- Rheological Properties of Blends of Isotactic Polystyrene–Isotactic Poly(para-methylstyrene) Films Derived from a Comparative Dewetting Study
- Austine Amukayia Mulama, Konstantinos Roumpos, Pradipkanti Lairenjam, Andrew Oduor, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 53 (2020) 9122–9130
- Dewetting-Induced Alignment and Ordering of Cylindrical Mesophases in Thin Block Copolymer Films
- Heng Zhang, Binghua Wang, Gang Wang, Changyu Shen, Jingbo Chen, Günter Reiter, Bin Zhang. Macromolecules 53, (2020) 9631–9640
- Estimation of the Size of Critical Secondary Nuclei of Melt-Grown Poly(l-lactide) Lamellar Crystals
- Shujing Zhang, Baohua Guo, Günter Reiter, Jun Xu. Macromolecules 53 (2020) 3482–3492
- Translating molecular relaxations in non-equilibrated polymer melts into lifting macroscopic loads
- Farzad Ramezani, Jörg Baschnagel, and Günter Reiter. Phys. Rev. Materials 4 (2020) 082601
- A new growth process for crystalline ultra-thin layers of conjugated oligomers used in field-effect transistor applications
- Sven Renkert, Sadiara Fall, Sajedeh Motamen, Thibaut Jarrosson, Françoise Serein-Spirau, Thomas Heiser, Laurent Simon, Günter Reiter, Jean-Luc Bubendorff. Applied Surface Science 539 (2021) 148024
- The memorizing capacity of polymers
- Günter Reiter. J. Chem. Phys. 152, 150901 (2020)
- Formation of asymmetric leaf-shaped crystals in ultrathin films of oriented polyethylene molecules resulting from high-temperature relaxation and recrystallization
- Huihui Li, Duanzijing Liu, Xinyun Bu, Zhenzhen Zhou, Zhongjie Ren, Xiaoli Sun, Renate Reiter, Shouke Yan, Günter Reiter. Macromolecules 53 (2020) 346-354
- Controlling phase transitions in Langmuir polymer films
- Abhijna Das. Inauguraldissertation der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physik 2020. DOI: 10.6094/UNIFR/167266