About the Crystallization of Abiotic Coded Matter

Area of Science:

• Polymer Science
• Crystallography
• Materials Science

Background:

• Polyurethanes are versatile polymers with applications in various fields.
• Understanding their crystallization behavior is crucial for tailoring material properties.
• Digital encoding offers a novel approach to designing polymer structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the crystallization of digitally encoded polyurethanes using electron diffraction.
• To analyze the influence of primary structure and digital coding on crystal formation.
• To examine the crystallization behavior of blends of differently encoded oligourethanes.

Main Methods:

• Electron diffraction was employed to study the crystallization of polyurethane oligomers.
• A series of oligomers with varying primary structures were synthesized and analyzed.
• Crystallization of blends of oligourethanes with different coded primary structures was investigated.

Main Results:

• All analyzed oligourethanes formed hydrogen-bonding-directed lamellar single crystals with a base-centered orthorhombic unit cell.
• Digital coding showed a minor impact on the intersheet distance within the crystals.
• The volume occupied by a basic information unit was calculated to be 148-188 ų.
• Blends of oligourethanes with different compositions formed segregated crystals, not cocrystals.

Conclusions:

• Digitally encoded polyurethanes exhibit predictable lamellar single crystal formation.
• The digital information content influences crystal lattice parameters, specifically intersheet distance.
• Blends of dissimilar encoded polyurethanes tend to segregate rather than form cocrystals, indicating distinct domain formation.