Aggregated States and Solidifying Process of α-Helical Molecular Chains of Poly(γ-methyl glutamate)

Abstract

The aggregated states of molecular chains of poly(γ-methyl glutamate) in various solvents were studied by means of X-ray diffraction and light scattering techniques. In this study, α-helical chains in a m-cresol system were homogeneously dispersed and formed a stable cholesteric liquid crystal over a wide range of temperature, from the solvent melting point to 400 K at a relatively low concentration (30wt%), while the highly concentrated solution existed in the form of a paracrystalline phase with a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice including solvent molecules. In the pyridine system, the solution was gelatinized and α-helical chains aggregated to form a gel network. Both differential scanning calorimetry and optical microscopic observation revealed that the gel and cholesteric phases were mutually reversible depending on the temperature in the case of the pyridine solution.