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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Marginally compact phase and ordered ground states in a model polymer with side spheres
Tatjana Škrbić1, Trinh Xuan Hoang2, Achille Giacometti3
1Department of Physics and Institute for Fundamental Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA and Dipartimento di Scienze Molecolari e Nanosistemi, Università Ca' Foscari di Venezia, Campus Scientifico, Edificio Alfa, Via Torino 155, 30170 Venezia Mestre, Italy.
Abstract:
We present the results of a quantitative study of the phase behavior of a model polymer chain with side spheres using two independent computer simulation techniques. We find that the mere addition of side spheres results in key modifications of standard polymer behavior. One obtains a marginally compact phase at low temperatures; the structures in this phase are reduced in dimensionality and are ordered, they include strands assembled into sheets and a variety of helices, and at least one of the transitions on lowering the temperature to access these ordered states is found to be first order. Our model serves to partially bridge conventional polymer phases with biomolecular phases.
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