posted on 2012-05-10, 00:00authored byValentina Villari, Giuseppe Gattuso, Anna Notti, Andrea Pappalardo, Norberto Micali
A light scattering study shows that the HCl-promoted
self-assembly
of an amino-calix[5]arene monomer precursor UC5-NH2, bearing an ancillary ureido binding site, efficiently yields
supramolecular polymers with a concentration-independent average mass.
These polymers adopt a random-coil conformation and interact among
themselves via the adhesive hard sphere pair potential. The findings
also indicate the formation of polymer clusters, coexisting in low
concentration with the polymers and resulting from the adhesive interpolymer
interactions. Unlike polymers, the size of these clusters depends
on the monomer concentration.