UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

Guest
2026-06-12 0:10
 HOME     CONFERENCES     SEARCH            LOGIN     NEW USER     IMAGES   


Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2026 Meeting


Section: Polymer Physics


Title:
Dimensional Crossover in Polymer Crystal Growth: From Three-Dimensional to Quasi-Two-Dimensional Avrami Regimes


Authors:
Catalin BERLIC(1), Cristina MIRON(1), Valentin BARNA(1), Adrian BERLIC(1,2)


Affiliation:
1) University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, 405 Atomistilor Street, 077125, Magurele, Romania

2) National Meteorological Administration, 97 Soseaua Bucuresti - Ploiesti, Bucharest, Romania


E-mail
cataliniulian.berlic@g.unibuc.ro


Keywords:
polymer crystallization, Avrami kinetics, Monte Carlo simulation, dimensional crossover, geometrical confinement


Abstract:
Polymer crystallization in confined geometries frequently exhibits kinetic behaviors that differ substantially from those observed in bulk systems. In this work, we investigate the dimensional crossover of crystal growth in thin polymer films using a three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation framework. The model considers instantaneous heterogeneous nucleation combined with isotropic crystal growth under hard-wall confinement conditions. The simulations were performed for a broad range of film thicknesses in order to analyze the transition from bulk-like crystallization toward quasi-two-dimensional growth regimes. Crystallization kinetics were quantified through the Avrami formalism by analyzing the evolution of the transformed fraction as a function of time. The results show that decreasing film thickness progressively modifies the effective Avrami exponent, indicating a continuous reduction of the apparent growth dimensionality. Instead of an abrupt transition, the crossover occurs gradually due to the competition between wall-induced truncation of crystalline domains and intercrystallite impingement. The proposed approach demonstrates that complex crystallization kinetics may emerge solely from geometrical constraints, without introducing additional molecular-scale mechanisms. These findings provide useful insight into crystallization processes in ultrathin polymer films, nanocomposites, and confined soft-matter systems.