Polymer collapses in a flash

Researchers in the Netherlands have created a polymer that folds up like a protein on exposure to light.¹  Non-covalent interactions are responsible for the collapse of the polymer, but while hydrophobic interactions drive protein folding, hydrogen bonding folds the polymer.

'Natural polymers, like proteins, are functional due to their highly ordered well-defined three-dimensional structures,' says Tristan Mes of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Mes' synthetic polymer is packed with benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) side chains that are connected by hydrogen bonds. Normally, these pull the polymer in on itself around a chiral centre of stacked BTA.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/April/28041102.asp