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A comprehensive 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach for characterizing the location of chain ends of polyethers and polyesters, at the crystallite surface or in the amorphous layers, is presented. The OH chain ends of polyoxymethylene are labeled with 13 COO-acetyl groups and their dynamics probed by 13 C NMR with chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) recoupling. At least three-quarters of the chain ends are not mobile dangling cilia but are immobilized, exhibiting a powder pattern characteristic of the crystalline environment and fast CSA dephasing. The location and clustering of the immobilized chain ends are analyzed by spin diffusion. Fast 1 H spin diffusion from the amorphous regions shows confinement of chain ends to the crystallite surface, corroborated by fast 13 C spin exchange between chain ends. These observations confirm the principle of avoidance of density anomalies, which requires that chains terminate at the crystallite surface to stay out of the crowded interfacial layer. 

Isomerization behaviors of spiropyran derivatives in neat condensed phase were studied to understand their unusual phase transitions including cold-crystallization after extreme supercooling down to −50 °C. Compounds with different functional groups were compared, and the equilibrium between isomers at high temperatures was found to determine phase transitions. 

Chain-level structure of semicrystalline polymers in melt- and solution-grown crystals has been debated over the past half century. Recently, 13C–13C double quantum (DQ) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been successfully applied to investigate chain-folding (CF) structure and packing structure of 13C enriched polymers after solution and melt crystallization. We review recent NMR studies for (i) packing structure, (ii) chain trajectory, (iii) conformation of the folded chains, (iv) nucleation mechanisms, (v) deformation mechanism, and (vi) molecular dynamics of semicrystalline polymers.