Fig. 2: Temporal evolution of morphology in PEO lamellar crystals induced by selective dissolution and the dissolution kinetics of PEO lamellar crystals.
a A false-colour overlay of AFM images showing the contour of a PEO crystal taken at different times (td) in the course of selective dissolution in toluene at Td = 20.5 °C. The bare substrate is represented in a grey colour. The initial PEO crystal was grown at (Tc, tc) = (49 °C, 120 s). Overlays of AFM images for the td-range of: (a) 0 ~ 1110 s, (b–d) 0 ~ 300 s; (e) 330 ~ 780 s and (f) 810 ~ 1110 s, respectively. The time intervals (Δt) between two successive layers for (a–e) and (f) are 30 s and 60 s, respectively. The scale bars represent 2 μm. g Time dependence of the dissolution velocity (Vd) along individual rough (120) and smooth (120) faces, respectively. The error bars indicate standard deviation of the replicate measurements. The brown and blue dashed lines correspond to the constant values, reached after a certain time, of the dissolution velocity along the R(120) and S(120) faces, respectively, which are designated as Vd,R and Vd,S. The dissolution velocity of the branches grown along directions normal to (120) planes is denoted as Vd,R-S(120), representing the transition from the dissolution of R(120) planes to the dissolution of S(120) planes. h Plot of the overall dissolution velocity (Vd,total) versus time during dissolution at Td = 20.5 °C.
