Proteinlike dynamical transition of hydrated polymer chains

Combining elastic incoherent neutron scattering experiments at different resolutions with molecular dynamics simulations, we report the observation of a proteinlike dynamical transition in linear chains of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). We identify the onset of the transition at a temperature Td of about 225 K. Due to a global fit procedure, we find quantitative agreement between measured and calculated polymer mean-squared displacements at all temperatures and time resolutions. Our results confirm the generality of the dynamical transition in macromolecular systems in aqueous environments, independently of the internal polymer topology.