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Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
The role of directional interactions in the designability of generalized heteropolymers
Chiara Cardelli1, Valentino Bianco1, Lorenzo Rovigatti1,2
1Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
Heteropolymers are important examples of self-assembling systems. However, in the design of artificial heteropolymers the control over the single chain self-assembling properties does not reach that of the natural bio-polymers, and in particular proteins. Here, we introduce a sufficiency criterion to identify polymers that can be designed to adopt a predetermined structure and show that it is fulfilled by polymers made of monomers interacting through directional (anisotropic) interactions. The criterion is based on the appearance of a particular peak in the radial distribution function, that we show being a universal feature of all designable heteropolymers, as it is present also in natural proteins. Our criterion can be used to engineer new self-assembling modular polymers that will open new avenues for applications in materials science.
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