Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
perpendicular organization of macromolecules: synthesis and alignment studies of a soluble poly(iptycene)
Samuel W Thomas1, Timothy M Long, Brian D Pate
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
We describe herein a polymeric material that prefers to align perpendicular to a stretch-aligned polymer host in the solid state. Poly(iptycene) poly-1 was synthesized from monomer 1 under hyperbaric techniques via a Diels-Alder polymerization. Polarized excitation spectra of the anthracene end groups in this material in a stretch-aligned, solution-cast poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) film showed that the poly(iptycene) prefers to align normal (counter aspect ratio) to the stretching direction of the PVC. This is explained by a "threading" mechanism, whereby the PVC intercalates through the internal free volume presented by poly-1, similar to effects observed in small molecule iptycenes under similar conditions.
Related Concept Videos
Polymers
Polymer Classification: Architecture
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...
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Radical Chain-Growth Polymerization: Chain Branching
Anionic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Overview

