| Crystallisation is one of the most efficient and most versatile ways of building molecular assemblies, exhibiting various kinds of morphologies with order on multiple length-scales. This process involves the crucial initial step of nucleation. Due to the statistical nature of nucleus formation, it is typically impossible to predict when and where a crystal starts to grow and how they are oriented. In macromolecular systems, experimentalists have circumvented these difficulties of nucleation by employing a so-called self-seeding approach. Here, we demonstrate how self-seeding can be exploited for the creation of arrays of aligned identical polymer crystals which all inherit their orientation from the starting crystal. |
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