Importance of Life Cycles in the Ecology of Harmful Microalgae

Abstract

The maximum entropy method was used for deconvolving the effect of size broadening in X-ray diffraction (XRD) scans. This technique is used to determine the number of components present in the diffuse halo from amorphous polymers and to sharpen the peaks in poorly crystallized polymers. The results of deconvolution are subsequently used in profie-fitting the data. The method is illustrated using data from poly(ethy1ene terephthalate) (PET) samples with crystallinities ranging from ca. 0 % to 50%. Our analysis showed that while one peak is sufficient to describe the amorphous scattering in some polymers (e.g., nylon 6), two or more components are necessary for others (e.g., PET) in the angular range of 5-35O. Our analysis suggests that the amorphous halo in this angular range is, in general, determined by the average interchain distances in the corresponding crystal lattices. The amorphous phase in crystallizable polymers can have a significant amount of medium-range order derived from the local order in the crystalline phase.