Premium
Counterintuitive consequences of competitive pathways in supramolecular polymerizations
Author(s) -
Mabesoone Mathijs F. J.,
Meijer E. W.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2642-4169
pISSN - 2642-4150
DOI - 10.1002/pola.29456
Subject(s) - supramolecular chemistry , supramolecular polymers , polymerization , monomer , polymer , circular dichroism , chemical physics , chemistry , materials science , polymer chemistry , crystallography , organic chemistry , crystal structure
Competition between supramolecular polymers for the same monomers can lead to strong responses in these systems. Using numerical simulations, we show that the sharpness and asymmetry of the transition from one thermodynamically stable polymer to another upon changing temperature is determined by the most unstable rather than the most stable supramolecular polymer. The width and asymmetry of the transitions are shown to depend on the relative and absolute nucleation penalties of the competing supramolecular polymerizations.