Polymer expands 35% upon uv irradiation
JUN 01, 1979
DOI: 10.1063/1.2995581
When a collection of long polymeric molecules experiences a change of chemical environment, the system may under certain circumstances exhibit a contraction or dilation, sometimes generating considerable mechanical forces in the process. Such “mechanochemical” forces have in fact been put to work in an isothermal chemical engine invented by Aharon Katchalsky‐Katzir and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute in 1966. The original impetus for the study of mechanochemical phenomena in the early 1950’s was an attempt to understand the mechanisms of muscle contraction.
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© 1979 American Institute of Physics
