A comprehensive review on polymer single crystals-From fundamental concepts to applications

Polymer single crystals and correlated crystalline structures are reviewed by emphasizing the last 10-20 years of research on fundamental concepts, single crystal engineering, and applications. The review commences with basic work comprising morphologies, theories, and especial single crystals, subsequently passes to star block, brush-covered, well-oriented, patterned, epitaxial, non-flat and degradable single crystals, and eventually reviews single crystals and nano-particles/structures including magnetically recyclable catalyst supports, nano-hybrid shish-kebabs to mimic the natural bone nanostructures, and nano/micromotors. Other applications are also presented and discussed in detail, including exploiting conductive single crystals of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) in field-effect transistors, nanowires and microwires, as well as fostering amino-functionalized lamellar poly(L-lactide) single crystals as a delivery system for human papillomaviruses-associated tumors.