2005/03/28 by Gustavo A. Carri, Carri, Gustavo A., Richard Batman +5
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Organometallic Complex Synthesis and Catalysis #Polymer crystallization and properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Synthesis and Properties of Aromatic Compounds #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0503654
26 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Polymer
arxiv created 2005/03/28 · openalex publication_date 2005/03/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/10/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the mechanical and conformational properties of networks of helical\npolymers with a combination of Monte Carlo simulations based on the Wang-Landau\nalgorithm and the Three-chain Model. We find that the stress-strain behavior of\nthese networks has novel features not observed in typical networks made of\nsynthetic polymers. In particular, we find that as these networks are stretched\nthey first strengthen, then soften and finally strengthen again. This\nnon-monotonic behavior of the stress correlates with the one of the helical\ncontent and is rationalized by the elongation-induced formation and melting of\nthe helical structure of the polymer. We complement these results with a study\nof other conformational properties of the polymer strands that clarify the\nmolecular mechanisms behind the mechanical behavior of these networks. Finally,\nwe present a qualitative comparison of some of our results with the theoretical\nones recently reported by Kutter and Terentjev.\n