Transient Binding and Dissipation in Semi-flexible Polymer Networks

Abstract

While polymer solutions lack the mechanical stability only transiently cross-linked networks can fulfill the competing requirements of structural stability and maximal energy dissipation. Here, we show that transient cross-links entail local stress relaxation and energy dissipation in an intermediate elasticity dominated frequency regime. We quantify the mechanical response of a semi-flexible polymer network by experimentally tuning the off-rate of the transient cross-linker molecule and theoretically reproduce the measured frequency response by a model that is predicated on microscopic unbinding events.

12 pages, 2 figures, including supplementary information

References in corpus (4)

• Mechanics of bundled semiflexible polymer networks
• Micro- and Macrorheological Properties of Isotropically Cross-linked Actin Networks
• Cross-linker unbinding and self-similarity in bundled cytoskeletal networks
• Internal Motility in Stiffening Actin-Myosin Networks

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Cooperative crosslink (un)binding in slowly driven bundles of semiflexible filaments