Chain fold /folding

A preliminary analysis of the features of thermotropic mesophases of flexible polymers we just described, leads us to envisage a path of polymer crystallization different from chain-folded, fold-preserving crystallization in-... 

The sequence of amino acids in a peptide can be written using the three-letter code shown in Figure 45.3 or a one-letter code, both in common use. For example, the tripeptide, ala.ala.phe, could be abbreviated further to AAF Although peptides and proteins have chain-like structures, they seldom produce a simple linear system rather, the chains fold and wrap around each other to give complex shapes. The chemical nature of the various amino acid side groups dictates the way in which the chains fold to arrive at a thermodynamically most-favored state. 

Polymer crystals form by the chain folding back and forth on itself, with crystal growth occurring by the deposition of successive layers of these folded chains at the crystal edge. The resulting crystal, therefore, takes on a platelike structure, the thickness of which corresponds to the distance between folds. 

The molecular chain folding is the origin of the Maltese cross which identifies the spherulite under crossed Polaroids. The Maltese cross is known to arise from a spherical array of birefringent particles through the following considerations ... 

Amines can also swell the polymer, lea ding to very rapid reactions. Pyridine, for example, would be a fairly good solvent for a VDC copolymer if it did not attack the polymer chemically. However, when pyridine is part of a solvent mixture that does not dissolve the polymer, pyridine does not penetrate into the polymer phase (108). Studies of single crystals indicate that pyridine removes hydrogen chloride only from the surface. Kinetic studies and product characterizations suggest that the reaction of two units in each chain-fold can easily take place further reaction is greatiy retarded either by the inabiUty of pyridine to diffuse into the crystal or by steric factors. 

Fig. 22.5. A chain-folded polymer crystal. The structure is like that of a badly woven carpet. The unit cell shown below, is relatively simple and is much smaller than the polymer chain.

Fig. 22.6. A schematic drawing of a largely crystalline polymer like high-density polyethylene. At the top the polymer has melted and the chain-folded segments hove unwound.

Several motifs usually combine to form compact globular structures, which are called domains. In this book we will use the term tertiary structure as a common term both for the way motifs are arranged into domain structures and for the way a single polypeptide chain folds into one or several domains. In all cases examined so far it has been found that if there is significant amino acid sequence homology in two domains in different proteins, these domains have similar tertiary structures. 

Large polypeptide chains fold into several domains... 

The molecular basis for quasi-equivalent packing was revealed by the very first structure determination to high resolution of a spherical virus, tomato bushy stunt virus. The structure of this T = 3 virus was determined to 2.9 A resolution in 1978 by Stephen Harrison and co-workers at Harvard University. The virus shell contains 180 chemically identical polypeptide chains, each of 386 amino acid residues. Each polypeptide chain folds into distinct modules an internal domain R that is disordered in the structure, a region (a) that connects R with the S domain that forms the viral shell, and, finally, a domain P that projects out from the surface. The S and P domains are joined by a hinge region (Figure 16.8). 

Figure 8.6. A diagrammatic view of a semicrystalline polymer showing both chain folding and interlamellar entanglements. The lamellae are 5-50 nm thick (after Windle 1996).

The single crystal of a polymer is a lamellar structure with a thin plateletlike form, and the chain runs perpendicular to the lamella. The crystal is thinner than the polymer chain length. The chain folds back and forth on the top and bottom surfaces. Since the fold costs extra energy, this folded chain crystal (FCC) should be metastable with respect to the thermodynamically more stable extended chain crystal (ECC) without folds. 

The mesomorphous phase, also called an intermediate phase or a mesophase, is formed by molecules occurring in surface layers of the crystallites. It can be assumed that the mesophase is made up largely by regularly adjacent reentry folds. However, it cannot be excluded that the mesophase is also composed of some irregular chain folds, which are characterized by a long length and run near the crystal face in the direction perpendicular to the microfibril axis. 

In contrast, for flexible-chain polymers, the transition into the ordered state is possible only if the flexibility can be decreased to values below fcr (in the absence of external deformational fields, the crystallization of flexible-chain polymers occurs by the mechanism of chain folding). 

Usually, crystallization of flexible-chain polymers from undeformed solutions and melts involves chain folding. Spherulite structures without a preferred orientation are generally formed. The structure of the sample as a whole is isotropic it is a system with a large number of folded-chain crystals distributed in an amorphous matrix and connected by a small number of tie chains (and an even smaller number of strained chains called loaded chains). In this case, the mechanical properties of polymer materials are determined by the small number of these ties and, hence, the tensile strength and elastic moduli of these polymers are not high. 

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