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Science 20 September 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5589, pp. 2005 - 2006
DOI: 10.1126/science.1076810
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Perspectives

CHEMISTRY:
Polymers Without Beginning or End

Tom McLeish

The ends of polymer chains play an important role in determining the properties of polymeric materials, with the dynamics of linear polymers resembling the reptation of snakes. In his Perspective, McLeish asks what may happen if the polymer molecules had no ends. Theoretical studies suggest that ring polymers consisting entirely of rings should behave more like two-dimensional amoebae than like snakes. An experimental test for this theory may be within reach following the discovery by Bielawski et al. of a catalyst that yields only unlinked ring-shaped polymers.

The author is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. E-mail: t.c.b.mcleish{at}leeds.ac.uk

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