Molecular Conformation and Intermolecular Interactions of Linear and Cyclic Amylose Derivatives in Solution

Abstract

AbstractFour kinds of rigid and semiflexible ring polymers are synthesized from flexible cyclic amylose. Their conformational properties in dilute solution are determined from dimensional and hydrodynamic properties in terms of the wormlike ring model. The helix rise per residue h of some ring polymers is larger or smaller than that for the corresponding linear chains, indicating that the local helical structure of the ring polymer is not the same as that for the linear chain. Intermolecular interactions detected by the second virial coefficient and chiral recognition ability of some ring polymers are different from the linear chain, suggesting the local structural change causes the intermolecular interactions. The study also finds that rigid ring polymers can form liquid crystal phase at high concentration. X‐ray diffraction results suggest that the ring chains form pseudo rodlike conformation in the liquid crystal phase, showing that intermolecular excluded volume effects significantly influence the conformation of the polymer chains.