Influence of Molecular Solvation on the Conformation of Star Polymers
Chemical Physics
2014-04-28 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
We have used neutron scattering to investigate the influence of concentration on the conformation of a star polymer. By varying the contrast between the solvent and isotopically labeled stars, we obtain the distributions of polymer and solvent within a star polymer from analysis of scattering data. A correlation between the local desolvation and the inward folding of star branches is discovered. From the perspective of thermodynamics, we find an analogy between the mechanism of polymer localization driven by solvent depletion and that of the hydrophobic collapse of polymers in solutions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.6266,
title = {Influence of Molecular Solvation on the Conformation of Star Polymers},
author = {Xin Li and Lionel Porcar and Luis E. Sánchez-Diáz and Changwoo Do and Yun Liu and Tae-Hwan Kim and Gregory S. Smith and William A. Hamilton and Kunlun Hong and Wei-Ren Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.6266},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
manuscript: 12 pages, 4 figures supporting information: 15 pages, 6 figures