Self-Collapsing of Single Molecular Poly-Propylene Oxide (PPO) in a 3D DNA Network.

On the basis of DNA self-assembly, a thermal responsive polymer polypropylene oxide (PPO) is evenly inserted into a rigid 3D DNA network for the study of single molecular self-collapsing process. At low temperature, PPO is hydrophilic and dispersed uniformly in the network; when elevating temperature, PPO becomes hydrophobic but can only collapse on itself because of the fixation and separation of DNA rigid network. The process has been characterized by rheological test and Small Angle X-Ray Scattering test. It is also demonstrated that this self-collapsing process is reversible and it is believed that this strategy could provide a new tool to study the nucleation-growing process of block copolymers.