writer：Kefeng Wang, Xiangchao Pang, and Shuxun Cui*
keywords：Elasticity, Single Polymer Chain
source：期刊
specific source：Langmuir, 29, 4315–4319.
Issue time：2013年

We study the single chain elasticities of three kinds of neutral polymers with carbon-carbon (C-C) backbone by AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) in a nonpolar solvent (octane), aiming at measuring the inherent chain elasticity of the very important class of polymers. The finding that the single chain elasticities of all the three polymers in octane are virtually identical in the entire force region implies that the side chains of the polymers have no detectable effects on the single chain elasticity. By utilizing the single chain elasticity from quantum mechanics (QM) calculations, the freely rotating chain (FRC) model can provide the best fitting curve when each C-C bond is set to be the rotating unit. Although there are some exceptions when the side chain is very huge, our work provides a general result for the inherent elasticity of single neutral flexible polymer chains with C-C backbones.