Finalist: Direct visualization of bottlebrush polymer conformations in the solid state

What is it about?

Although the behavior of single molecules drives our understanding of polymer physics, it is surprising that there are very few images that depict how these molecules interact with one another in a bulk environment. This work uses super-resolution optical microscopy to capture single chain behavior.

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Photo by Brands&People on Unsplash

Photo by Brands&People on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work provides a clear and convincing picture of a polymer chain surrounded by other polymers in the solid state over 100 y after the molecular definition of polymers was first proposed. We achieve this feat using super-resolution optical microscopy, which provides resolution sufficient for the nanoscale detail and provides contrast of individual chains from the surrounding background through fluorescent labeling. We measure the conformation of these polymers directly from their images and show that their rigidity is significantly different from that in solution. Further analysis investigates the dependence of conformation on various parameters, such as polymer branching and the features of the surrounding polymers.