Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2025

Synthesis of Monodisperse Cylindrical Nanoparticles via Crystallization-driven Self-assembly of Biodegradable Block Copolymers
Published on: June 20, 2019
Effect of Ring Composition on the Statics and Dynamics of Block Copolyelectrolyte Catenanes
Pietro Chiarantoni1,2, Andrea Tagliabue3,1,4, Massimo Mella3
1Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati - SISSA, via Bonomea 265, Trieste 34136, Italy.
Abstract:
We use Langevin simulations to study the effect of ring composition on the structure and dynamics of model polycatenanes with copolyelectrolyte rings, each made of one charged and one neutral block. Key observables have a nonmonotonic dependence on ring composition, including the radius of gyration, mechanical bond length, orientational correlations, and rotational relaxation times. Microscopic analysis shows that these nonmonotonicities arise from the competition between electrostatic repulsion, pulling rings apart, and topological constraints, enforcing the proximity of neighboring rings. By locking charged-neutral interfaces at the mechanically bonded regions, this interplay can induce a strong chemical orientational order along the catenane while also hindering the local relaxation dynamics. Chemical orientation defects, manifesting as neutral-neutral interfaces, can emerge too and migrate along the catenane via coupled reorientations of neighboring rings. Our results clarify how ring composition and mechanical bonds can define the properties of topological materials across different scales.
More Related Videos
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...
Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism
Stability of Substituted Cyclohexanes
The two chair conformations of cyclohexanes undergo rapid interconversion at room temperature. Both forms have identical energies and stabilities, each comprising equal amounts of the equilibrium mixture. Replacing a hydrogen atom with a functional group makes the two conformations energetically non-equivalent.
For example, in...
Thermal Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry
Selection Rules: Thermal Activation
Conjugated systems containing an even number of π-electron pairs undergo a conrotatory ring closure. For example, thermal electrocyclization of (2E,4E)-2,4-hexadiene, a conjugated diene containing two π-electron pairs, gives trans-3,4-dimethylcyclobutene.
Catenins
Catenins in Cell Junctions
Catenins bind to cell adhesion molecules such as cadherins and link them to different cytoskeletal proteins depending on the type of cell junction. At the...
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds

