'The head-tail of tadpoles': The dynamics of polymers with a very unique shape
They are in the shape of a tadpole and interact with each other by harpooning between head and tail, thus presenting interesting and unexpected physical properties. Tadpoles are the large molecules at the centre of new research just published in the journal ACS Macro Letters, and the result of an international collaboration between SISSA and the Universities of Vienna, Warwick and Edinburgh. In the study, the researchers describe how these particular constructs, conceived by the scientists as the union between a circular and a linear polymer, in dense solutions present much "slower" molecular dynamics compared to that recorded by the two parts that make it up. And this is because 'heads' and 'tails' tend to 'capture' each other, in a cascade process. What is the result? A much less fluid and much more viscous product.