Kinetics of Supramolecular Polymerization: MSOA and HG Mechanisms

Abstract

Multistage open association (MSOA) and helical growth (HG) mechanisms describe the linear growth of supramolecular polymer chains and the helical growth of supramolecular chains with the intra-assemble cooperative effect, respectively. Both mechanisms were proposed by Ciferri. Assuming that supramolecular polymerization follows the step-growth and the interaction between repeat units is independent of molecular weight, the kinetics of MSOA and HG can be mathematically analyzed. In this paper the relationships among degree of polymerization (DP), unimer concentration (C0), and equilibrium constant (K) for MSOA and DP , concentration of helical polymer ( h C ), and nucleation factor (σ ) for HG were derived.