Dipolar Self-Interactions Drive Polymer Chain Collapse

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Khandagale, Pratik, deBotton, Gal, Breitzman, Timothy, Majidi, Carmel, Dayal, Kaushik
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Khandagale, Pratik
deBotton, Gal
Breitzman, Timothy
Majidi, Carmel
Dayal, Kaushik
author_facet Khandagale, Pratik
deBotton, Gal
Breitzman, Timothy
Majidi, Carmel
Dayal, Kaushik
contents We report that a dielectric polymer chain, constrained at both ends, sharply collapses when exposed to a high electric field. The chain collapse is driven by nonlocal dipolar interactions and anisotropic polarization of monomers, a characteristic of real polymers that prior theories were unable to incorporate. Once collapsed, a large number of chain monomers accumulate at the center location between the chain ends, locally increasing the electric field and polarization by orders of magnitude. The chain collapse is sensitive to the orientation of the applied electric field and chain stretch. Our findings not only offer new ways for rapid actuation and sensing but also provide a pathway to discover the critical physics behind instabilities and electrical breakdown in dielectric polymers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_01993
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dipolar Self-Interactions Drive Polymer Chain Collapse
Khandagale, Pratik
deBotton, Gal
Breitzman, Timothy
Majidi, Carmel
Dayal, Kaushik
Soft Condensed Matter
We report that a dielectric polymer chain, constrained at both ends, sharply collapses when exposed to a high electric field. The chain collapse is driven by nonlocal dipolar interactions and anisotropic polarization of monomers, a characteristic of real polymers that prior theories were unable to incorporate. Once collapsed, a large number of chain monomers accumulate at the center location between the chain ends, locally increasing the electric field and polarization by orders of magnitude. The chain collapse is sensitive to the orientation of the applied electric field and chain stretch. Our findings not only offer new ways for rapid actuation and sensing but also provide a pathway to discover the critical physics behind instabilities and electrical breakdown in dielectric polymers.
title Dipolar Self-Interactions Drive Polymer Chain Collapse
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.01993