Visualization of Nonequilibrium Properties of a Crystalline Polymer: Formation of Ring-Lite Due to the Gibbs–Thomson Effect and Dark-Ring Due to the Melting Point Inversion

A polymer crystallite having a ring-like morphology was obtained by combining the nonequilibrium nature of a polymeric material and a rapid temperature-jump technique. Termed “ring-lite” here, it consists of the concentrically arranged crystalline and molten regions of a single-component polymer. During the growing process of a spherulite, crystallization temperature Tc was, in turn, changed between low and high temperatures at certain...