Proteinlike dynamical transition of hydrated polymer chains

Combining elastic incoherent neutron scattering experiments at different resolutions with molecular dynamics simulations, we report the observation of a proteinlike dynamical transition in linear chains of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). We identify the onset of the transition at a temperature Td of about 225 K. Due to a global fit procedure, we find quantitative agreement between measured and calculated polymer mean-squared displacements at all temperatures and time resolutions. Our results confirm the generality of the dynamical transition in macromolecular systems in aqueous environments, independently of the internal polymer topology.

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L. Tavagnacco, M. Zanatta, E. Buratti, B. Rosi, B. Frick, F. Natali, J. Ollivier, E. Chiessi, M. Bertoldo, E. Zaccarelli, and A. Orecchini, Proteinlike dynamical transition of hydrated polymer chains, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 013191 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.013191.

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