Double helical conformation and extreme rigidity in a rodlike polyelectrolyte

Ying Wang; Yadong He; Zhou Yu; Jianwei Gao; Stephanie ten Brinck; Carla Slebodnick; Gregory B. Fahs; Curt J. Zanelotti; Maruti Hegde; Robert B. Moore; Bernd Ensing; Theo J. Dingemans; Rui Qiao; Louis A. Madsen

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08756-3

Nature Communications (Feb 2019)

Double helical conformation and extreme rigidity in a rodlike polyelectrolyte

Ying Wang,
Yadong He,
Zhou Yu,
Jianwei Gao,
Stephanie ten Brinck,
Carla Slebodnick,
Gregory B. Fahs,
Curt J. Zanelotti,
Maruti Hegde,
Robert B. Moore,
Bernd Ensing,
Theo J. Dingemans,
Rui Qiao,
Louis A. Madsen

Affiliations

Ying Wang: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech
Yadong He: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech
Zhou Yu: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech
Jianwei Gao: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Stephanie ten Brinck: Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Carla Slebodnick: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech
Gregory B. Fahs: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech
Curt J. Zanelotti: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech
Maruti Hegde: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Robert B. Moore: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech
Bernd Ensing: Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Theo J. Dingemans: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Rui Qiao: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech
Louis A. Madsen: Department of Chemistry and Macromolecules Innovation Institute, Virginia Tech

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08756-3
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

Read online

Double helix structures appear widely in nature, but only rarely in synthetic non-chiral macromolecules. Here the authors describe a double helix in a densely charged aromatic polyamide, which exhibits an axial rigidity persistence length of ~ 1 μm, much higher than that of DNA (~ 50 nm).

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

About the journal