The effect of solvent quality on thickening of single chain single crystal studied by Monte Carlo simulations

We reported dynamical Monte Carlo simulations to study the effect of solvent quality on crystallization and the subsequent isothermal thickening of a single homopolymer chain. The results showed that prior coil-globule transition could enhance nucleation and crystallization of the single chain. The solvent quality decided by the contacts between solvents and chain monomers resulted in different crystallizing and thickening behaviors. Typically further fold-length of an isolated chain extended easily in good solution. Otherwise the thickening mechanism was hard to develop in poor solution due to the confinement of liquid-solid interfaces.