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Imaging of Catenated, Figure‐of‐Eight, and Trefoil Knot Polymer Rings
Author(s) -
Schappacher Michel,
Deffieux Alain
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.200900704
Subject(s) - polymer , knot (papermaking) , polymer science , polystyrene , trefoil , materials science , computer science , crystallography , chemistry , art , composite material , visual arts
A knotty problem : Macrocyclic topological isomers formed during the end‐to‐end cyclization of linear polymer chains are imaged by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Images of isolated molecules (see picture) were obtained after magnification of the initial polymer rings by grafting polystyrene oligomers to the macrocyles. This technique allows the visualization of nontrivial macrocyclic architectures.