Designing enhanced entropy binding in single-chain nano particles

Abstract

Single-chain nanoparticles (SCNP) are a new class of bio and soft-matter polymeric objects in which a fraction of the monomers are able to form equivalently intra-or inter-polymer bonds.Here we numerically show that a fully-entropic gas-liquid phase separation can take place in SCNP systems. Control over the discontinuous (first-order) change -from a phase of independent diluted (fully-bonded) polymers to a phase in which polymers entropically bind to each other to form a (fully-bonded) polymer network -can be achieved by a judicious design of the patterns of reactive monomers along the polymer chain. Such a sensitivity arises from a delicate balance between the distinct entropic contributions controlling the binding.