Abstract The minimum requirement of the free enthalpy increase for the formation of any type of critical size nucleus determines the probability for the nucleation from supercooled melt or solution and for the subsequent crystal growth. The minimum demand decreases as the inverse square of the supercooling. This yields a rapid increase of the nucleation and growth rate with decreasing temperature. On the other hand, the viscous resistance of the melt or solution to the chain transfer from the liquid to the crystalline phase increases with the temperature approaching that of the glass transition. Both effects together yield a maximum of the nucleation and growth rates at a finite supercooling with a subsequent drastic drop at a higher supercooling. The extension and alignment of the polymer chains in the liquid by applied mechanical forces lowers the entropy and to some extent also the enthalpy of the liquid state, thus raising the equilibrium melting temperature of the system and increasing the effective supercooling. As a consequence the rate of nucleation and crystal growth is drastically increased. Moreover, the shape of the primary nuclei becomes substantially linear with orientation in the main strain direction. Since these linear elements carry most of the applied load or stress, the rest of the liquid can relax to such an extent that by epitaxial overgrowth the macromolecules are able to be deposited in more or less conventional lamellae perpendicular to the stress. This yields the shish-kebab structure in the stirred or sonicated solutions and the cylindritic structure in hard elastomers solidified from the extruded melt.
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