Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: We directly visualize single polymers with persistence lengths l(p), ranging from 0.05 to 16 microm, dissolved in the nematic phase of rodlike fd virus. Polymers with a sufficiently large persistence length undergo a coil-rod transition at the isotropic-nematic transition of the background solvent. We quantitatively analyze the transverse fluctuations of the semiflexible polymers and show that at long wavelengths they are driven by the fluctuating nematic background. We extract the Odijk deflection length and the elastic constant of the background nematic phase from the data.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G456906831
OpenAlex ID: W2153979625