Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 330, Issue 6012, Pages 1804-1807Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1197321
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Funding
- NSF Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology [EEC-0118007, EEC-0647452]
- Welch Foundation [C-1668]
- Advanced Energy Consortium
- Region Aquitaine
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR PNANO)
- European Research Council [232942]
- Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM)
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
- European Research Council (ERC) [232942] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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The thermal motion of stiff filaments in a crowded environment is highly constrained and anisotropic; it underlies the behavior of such disparate systems as polymer materials, nanocomposites, and the cell cytoskeleton. Despite decades of theoretical study, the fundamental dynamics of such systems remains a mystery. Using near-infrared video microscopy, we studied the thermal diffusion of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) confined in porous agarose networks. We found that even a small bending flexibility of SWNTs strongly enhances their motion: The rotational diffusion constant is proportional to the filament-bending compliance and is independent of the network pore size. The interplay between crowding and thermal bending implies that the notion of a filament's stiffness depends on its confinement. Moreover, the mobility of SWNTs and other inclusions can be controlled by tailoring their stiffness.
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