Recent research conducted by the Chemistry Department at the University of Liverpool has achieved a significant milestone in the realm of polymer science.
Artistic rendering of a polymer chain containing a molecular force probe (central structure) being distorted by the flow field around an imploding cavitation bubble (central circle). Image Credit: University of Liverpool.
The study published in the journal Nature Chemistry was featured on the front cover. Liverpool researchers employed mechanochemistry to study how a polymer chain in a solution reacts when the solvent flow around it suddenly accelerates.
This innovative approach has provided answers to a fundamental and long-standing question that has intrigued polymer scientists for the past half-century.
Since the 1980s, scientists have been attempting to comprehend how dissolved polymer chains react to sudden changes in solvent flow. However, their efforts were limited to using highly simplified solvent flows, offering only limited insights into real-world systems.
The recent breakthrough achieved by Professor Roman Boulatov and Dr. Robert O’Neill from the University of Liverpool holds substantial scientific importance for various fields in the physical sciences.
It also has practical implications for controlling the rheology of polymer-based materials, which is vital in numerous high-value industrial processes, including enhanced oil and gas recovery, long-distance piping, and photovoltaics manufacturing, each of which involves multimillion-dollar investments.
Our finding addresses a fundamental and technical question in polymer science and potentially upends our current understanding of chain behavior in cavitational solvent flows.
Roman Boulatov, Professor, University of Liverpool
“Our proof-of-the-approach demonstration reveals that our understanding of how polymer chains respond to sudden accelerations of solvent flows in cavitating solutions was too simplistic to support systematic design of new polymer structures and compositions for efficient and economical rheological control in such scenarios or for gaining fundamental molecular insights into flow-induced mechanochemistry,” adds Co-author of the paper, Dr. Robert O’Neill added
Our paper has important implications for our ability to study non-equilibrium polymer chain dynamics at the molecular length scales, and thus our capacity to answer fundamental questions of how energy flows between molecules and within them, and how it transforms from kinetic to potential to free energies.
Dr. Robert O’Neill, Study Co-Author, University of Liverpool
The research team's future plans involve broadening the applications and enhancing the capabilities of their innovative method. They aim to utilize it to study molecular-level physics, enabling precise predictions of flow behavior for any combination of polymer, solvent, and flow conditions.
Journal Reference:
O’Neill, R. T., & Boulatov, R. (2023). Experimental quantitation of molecular conditions responsible for flow-induced polymer mechanochemistry. Nature Chemistry. doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01266-2.