AbstractIt is demonstrated that dicarboxylic acids of uniform lengths, obtained by degrading chain‐folded polyethylene single crystals, can be converted to paraffins via the intermediate diiodide by means of the procedure of Barton et al. Thus we are now in the position of obtaining uniform paraffins of chain lengths longer than hitherto available for the study of the crystallization of oligomeric chains. Measurements of melting points and heats of fusion revealed major differences between the paraffins and the corresponding parent dicarboxylic acids. It follows that such measurements on the unmodified products of the nitric acid degradation cannot be used directly for the assessment of the chain traverse length and the degree of crystallinity. It was found further, that the intermediate diiodide is a sufficiently close approximation to the paraffin for the purposes just quote