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Dynamics of polymer molecules with sacrificial bond and hidden length systems: towards a physically-based mesoscopic
Ahmed E Elbanna1, Jean M Carlson
1Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America. elbanna2@uiuc.edu
Abstract:
We investigate the entropic force-elongation behavior of a polymer chain in the presence of the sacrificial bond and hidden length (SBHL) system observed experimentally in many biomaterials. We show that in most cases the SBHL system leads to a significant increase in toughness. However, the presence of a large number of bonds or relatively strong bonds in the SBHL system can reduce the net gain in toughness. We also incorporate the polymer model into a network of polymers with random properties (e.g., contour length, number and strength of sacrificial bonds, length of hidden loops). This allows us to derive a physically-based mesoscopic force-displacement law that governs the collective behavior.
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