Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 29, 2025

Directed Cellular Self-Assembly to Fabricate Cell-Derived Tissue Rings for Biomechanical Analysis and Tissue Engineering
Published on: November 25, 2011
Packing structure of semiflexible rings
Leopoldo R Gómez1, Nicolás A García2, Thorsten Pöschel3
1Department of Physics, Universidad Nacional del Sur-IFISUR-CONICET, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina; lgomez@uns.edu.ar.
Abstract:
Unraveling the packing structure of dense assemblies of semiflexible rings is not only fundamental for the dynamical description of polymer rings, but also key to understand biopackaging, such as observed in circular DNA of viruses or genome folding. Here we use X-ray tomography to study the geometrical and topological features of disordered packings of rubber bands in a cylindrical container. Assemblies of short bands assume a liquid-like disordered structure, with short-range orientational order, and reveal only minor influence of the container. In the case of longer bands, the confinement causes folded configurations and the bands interpenetrate and entangle. Most of the systems are found to display a threading network which percolates the system. Surprisingly, for long bands whose diameter is more than twice the diameter of the container, we found that all bands interpenetrate each other, in a complex fully entangled structure.
Related Concept Videos
Chair Conformation of Cyclohexane
The hydrogen atoms linked to carbons are arranged in two different axial and equatorial orientations to achieve this...
The Contractile Ring
A small GTPase, RhoA, controls the function and assembly of the contractile ring. RhoA belongs to the Ras superfamily of proteins. The activation of formins by RhoA promotes...
Conformations of Cycloalkanes
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
Conformations of Cyclohexane
The chair form is the most stable and derives its name from its resemblance to the “easy chair.” In the chair conformation, two carbon atoms are arranged out-of-plane — one above and one below, minimizing the torsional strain. In the chair form, the bond angle is very close to the ideal...
Olefin Metathesis Polymerization: Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP)

