Dear Colleagues, I am aware of the fact that approximate spherulite size can be determined from POM (polarization optical micrographs), especially if the nucleation is not very dense and the outer dimensions of the individual spherulites can be well recognized. (By the way - is there any free software which can do the analysis automatically on digitalized micrographs?) I am also aware of the fact that SALS (small angle light scattering) allows the determination of average spherulite size from the clover-like "lobes" of the scatterogram.
My impression is that in the case of dense nucleation, where one still gets colors under crossed Nicols, so the system is definitely microcrystalline, but the individual spherulites cannot be well identified (spot size in the order of 10 micrometers) still there can be significant differences in the microstructure. In some case one sees a marble-like structure, in some other case patches of opposite colors. It probably has to do with the distribution of the crystalline and amorphous phases.
I wonder whether it is meaningful to convert such micrographs into grey scale and to perform a kind of Fourier analysis which would result in something like the scattering function in the inverse space. It may perhaps give information on average size of the spots, maybe even on connectivity. Not being a scattering scientist I would like to hear the opinion of experts whether similar analyses have been made e.g. on micro-phase separated systems? (I expect that the analysis of phase separated blends after staining would give similar results - so this method would not be limited to semicrystalline systems.)
It is also possible that this is a false idea.
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