Abstract
White Beam Synchrotron Topography has been used to determine the role of localized stress fields in the solid state polymerization of single crystals of the diacetylene PTS. Results indicate that the stress fields due to grown in dislocations can accelerate local reaction kinetics in thermally induced polymerization reactions, although no such effects were previously observable in photolytically or radiolytically induced reactions. Results are analyzed in an analogous fashion to the treatment of the nucleation of solid state phase transformations at dislocations. Good agreement was found between approximate theoretical treatments and experimental observation. The response of the monomer crystal to the inhomogeneous stresses generated as a result of inhomogeneous reaction and the implications regarding local reaction kinetics are discussed in detail.