Triple points in solutions of polydisperse semiflexible polymers
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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
1Department of Physics, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
Abstract:
When a mother solution of semiflexible polymers with differing molecular weights is forced to undergo phase transition, cloud and shadow curves emerge instead of a coexistence curve. For the first time, we calculate the cloud and shadow curves for an isotropic-nematic transition coupled to polydispersity and predict novel triple points. Because of the emergence of new triple points, polydispersity allows the occurrence of anisotropic phases at much lower polymer concentrations than for the monodisperse solutions.
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