Hyperexpandable, self-healing macromolecular crystals with integrated polymer networks.

ABSTRACT: The formation of condensed matter typically involves a trade-off between structural order and flexibility. As the extent and directionality of interactions between atomic or molecular components increase, materials generally become more ordered but less compliant, and vice versa. Nevertheless, high levels of structural order and flexibility are not necessarily mutually exclusive; there are many biological (such as microtubules^1,2, flagella ³ , viruses^4,5) and synthetic assemblies (for example, dynamic molecular crystals^6-9 and frameworks^10-13) that can undergo considerable structural transformations without losing their crystalline order and that have remarkable mechanical properties^8,14,15 that are useful in diverse applica

SUBMITTER: Zhang L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6334653 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature