The influence of temperature on the morphology of polybutylene succinate (PBS) lamellae

obtained by self-seeding crystallization in dilute dichloride benzene solution

was systematically studied.The morphologies of the PBS single crystals obtained by this method all have a similar size and shape.The atomic force microscopy measurements

such as the average surface roughness

were summarized over tens of the PBS crystals.It was found that the nucleation and the surface roughness of the folding surface of PBS lamellae were significantly influenced by the isothermal crystallization temperatures and the seeding temperatures.The higher the crystallization temperature

the larger the surface roughness can be found and it preferred to grow the single layer PBS crystals.It is suggested that the defects are mainly distributed on the folding surface.However

during crystallization at a relatively lower temperature

the smooth folding surface and multi-layers PBS crystals can be observed.We postulated that the defects may be trapped in the PBS crystal and to induce the screw dislocation growth to form the multi-layer morphology.Based on our experimental results

a simple model is proposed to qualitatively describe the relationship between the probability of defects in the lamellae and the supercooling degrees during the isothermal crystallization.Moreover

an inducing nucleation mechanism on folding surface of a crystal is also proposed

it can be used to explain our experimental observations.