Designing Enhanced Entropy Binding in Single-Chain Nanoparticles

Single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) are a new class of bio- and soft-matter polymeric objects in which a fraction of the monomers are able to form equivalently intra- or interpolymer bonds. Here we numerically show that a fully entropic gas-liquid phase separation can take place in SCNP systems. Control over the discontinuous (first-order) change - from a phase of independent diluted (fully-bonded) polymers to a phase in which polymers entropically bind to each other to form a (fully-bonded) polymer network - can be achieved by a judicious design of the patterns of reactive monomers along the polymer chain. Such a sensitivity arises from a delicate balance between the distinct entropic contributions controlling the binding.