The Nano-threading of Polymers

When guest polymers are threaded by host cyclodextrins (CDs) to form crystalline inclusion compounds (ICs), the included polymer chains are highly extended and separated from neighboring chains. This is a consequence of the stacking of the cyclic oligosaccharides, α-, β-, or γ-CD containing 6, 7, or 8 glucose units, respectively, which produces continuous narrow channels (~0.5–1.0 nm diameters), where the guest polymers are included and confined. Observations that illuminate several important aspects of the nano-threading of polymers to form polymer-CD-ICs are described. These include (i) the competitive CD threading of polymers with different chemical structures and molecular weights from their solutions containing suspended solid or dissolved CDs, (ii) the threading and insertion of undiluted liquid polymers into solid CDs, and (iii) suspension of polymer A or B-CD-IC crystals in a solution of polymer B or A and observation of the transfer of polymer B or A from solution to displace polymer A or B and form polymer B or A-CD-ICs, without dissolution of the CD-ICs. In addition, we report observations of polyolefins adsorbed on zeolites, where we believe the adsorbed polyolefin chains are actually threaded and absorbed into the interiors of the zeolite nano-pores, rather than adsorbed on the zeolite surfaces. All of the above observations were made to assist in answering the question “Why do randomly-coiling polymer chains in solution or the melt become threaded or thread into the nano-pores of dissolved or solid CDs and solid zeolites, where they are highly extended and segregated from other polymer chains?” Though still not fully able to answer this question, we are able to assess the importance of several factors that have been previously suggested to be important in the formation of CD-ICs with both polymer and small-molecule guests and to the nano-threading of polymers in general. In particular, the value in observations of the inclusion of guest polymers, as well as small-molecule guests, into solid CDs suspended in their solutions and in neat guest liquids were made apparent, because interactions between host CDs, between CDs and solvents, and between quests and solvents, which complicate and make understanding the formation of polymer-CD-ICs difficult, are either eliminated or can be independently varied in these experiments.