Researchers have developed the most precise way to build polyrotaxanes by using two artificial molecular pumps to install rings onto each end of a polymer string. Northwestern University researchers ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 106, No. 42 (Oct. 20, 2009), pp. 17644-17649 (6 pages) The "beads-on-a-string" model for folding of polymers is a ...

Polyrotaxanes show promise in soft materials, such as scratch-resistant coatings and actuators Pump allows researchers to control precisely how many rings thread onto the chain, which was previously ...