Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 24, 2026

DNA Nanotubes as a Versatile Tool to Study Semiflexible Polymers
Published on: October 25, 2017
Elongation and fluctuations of semiflexible polymers in a nematic solvent
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Abstract:
We directly visualize single polymers with persistence lengths l(p), ranging from 0.05 to 16 microm, dissolved in the nematic phase of rodlike fd virus. Polymers with a sufficiently large persistence length undergo a coil-rod transition at the isotropic-nematic transition of the background solvent. We quantitatively analyze the transverse fluctuations of the semiflexible polymers and show that at long wavelengths they are driven by the fluctuating nematic background. We extract the Odijk deflection length and the elastic constant of the background nematic phase from the data.
More Related Videos
06:55Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
06:16Monitoring the Effects of Illumination on the Structure of Conjugated Polymer Gels Using Neutron Scattering
Published on: December 21, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution
Mechanisms of Membrane-bending
Membrane bending can happen due to intrinsic changes in lipid composition or extrinsic association with different proteins. The proteins involved...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR
Polymer Classification: Architecture
Ziegler–Natta Chain-Growth Polymerization: Overview