Abstract
Filtered beam synchrotron white radiation topography has been used to investigate the role of defects in the x-ray induced, single crystal to amorphous, solid state polymerization reaction of bis(propiolato)tetraaquozinc(II). Images of growth dislocations, which were well defined prior to reaction, were observed to become more and more diffuse as cumulative x-ray exposure increased. This behavior is consistent with existing models for the nucleation of single crystal to amorphous reactions at dislocations, whereby the stress field of the dislocations is relaxed during reaction.