Folding of a single polymer chain and phase transition

• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2009,（11）
• 页码范围: 1908-1911
• 页数: 4页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1007/s11434-009-0278-0

摘要

Using an ultra-sensitive differential scanning calorimetry (US-DSC), we have investigated the folding and aggregation behaviors of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) chains in dilute and semidilute solutions. In the heating process, the intrachain folding and interchain aggregation simultaneously occur in the dilute solutions, and the ratio of intrachain folding increases with decreasing concentra-tion. In the semidilute solutions, PNIPAM chains show limited interchain aggregation with elevated temperature, because most of the PNIPAM chains have been collapsed at lower temperature. In an ex-tremely dilute solution, PNIPAM chains undergo a single folding transition in the heating process. By extrapolating heating rate and concentration to zero, we have obtained the phase transition tempera-ture (Ts) and enthalpy change (AHs) of the single chain folding. AHs is higher than that for a phase transition involving intrachain collapse and interchain aggregation, indicating that a single chain fold-ing can not be taken to be a macroscopic phase transition.