Active Polymers in Complex Environments

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY The goal of this project is to create a new class of polymer materials with the property that they respond to energy injected locally to individual molecules. The envisioned deeper understanding of their properties can advance numerous scientific and technical applications, among them not only the development of functional polymers, but also the development of technology platforms for new rheological, responsive and reconfigurable materials. Along the way to accomplishing this goal, this research will produce new experimental tools to quantify polymer mobility that are impossible to characterize by conventional methods and will import, into the field of polymer physics, methods with single-molecule sensitivity that hold exceptional promise for this field. There may also be connections with biological science and engineering, where out-of-equilibrium active molecules also are central to function. Integrating research and education, these problems of active polymers will improve research infrastructure in the polymer field by developing new methods not previously used in this discipline. Graduate students working in this project will be broadly trained in advanced characterization techniques, and they will have the opportunity to mentor talented undergraduates in research. TECHNICAL SUMMARY This research focuses on a newly-emerging problem of polymer physics – polymers as active matter that responds to fluctuations not only of thermal energy but also of local forces acting on molecules individually. The PI will develop methods to produce active polymers and will study their mobility with focus on its dependence upon molecular weight and concentration, as well as possible self-organization into structures that at thermal equilibrium would not occur. The methods will include novel experimental platforms of fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy with single-molecule resolution resolved in space and time. The experiments will be compared to available theory, focusing on how energy injected locally produces deviations from expectations based on conventional polymer physics. These methods and problem statements may find general application and wider utility by other researchers after protocols have been developed and their scientific value has been demonstrated. . This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.