Nature Communications (Aug 2018)
Role of hydrogen bonding in hysteresis observed in sorption-induced swelling of soft nanoporous polymers
Abstract
Water uptake of natural polymers is accompanied by swelling and changes in the internal structure of the polymeric system but the exact mechanism of water-uptake and swelling remained unknown. Here the authors use atom-scale simulations to identify a molecular mechanism which is responsible for hysteresis in sorption-induced swelling in natural polymers.