Brush-like elastomers with crystallizable side chains hold promise for biomedical applications requiring the presence of two distinct mechanical states below and above body temperature: hard and supersoft. The hard semicrystalline state facilitates piercing of the body whereupon the material softens to match the mechanics of surrounding soft tissue. To understand the transition between the two states, the crystallization process was studied with synchrotron X-ray scattering for a series of brush elastomers with poly(ε-caprolactone) side chains bearing from 7 to 13 repeat units. The so-called bottlebrush correlation peak was used to monitor configuration of bottlebrush backbones in the amorphous regions during the crystallization process. In the course of crystallization, the backbones are expelled into the interlamellar amorphous gaps, which is accompanied by their conformational changes and leads to partitioning to unconfined (melt) and confined (semicrystalline) (conformational) states. The crystallization process starts by consumption of the unconfined macromolecules by the growing crystals followed by reconfiguration of macromolecules within the already grown spherulites.

中文翻译：

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具有可结晶侧链的瓶刷弹性体：在结晶过程中监测非晶区域中聚合物主链的配置

具有可结晶侧链的刷状弹性体有望用于需要在低于和高于体温的两种不同机械状态下存在的生物医学应用：硬和超软。坚硬的半结晶状态有助于刺穿身体，因此材料软化以匹配周围软组织的力学。为了了解这两种状态之间的转变，使用同步加速器 X 射线散射研究了一系列具有 7 到 13 个重复单元的聚（ε-己内酯）侧链的刷状弹性体的结晶过程。所谓的瓶刷相关峰用于监测结晶过程中无定形区域中瓶刷骨架的配置。在结晶过程中，主链被排入层间无定形间隙，这伴随着它们的构象变化并导致分配到无限制（熔化）和限制（半结晶）（构象）状态。结晶过程开始于无约束的大分子被生长的晶体消耗，然后是已经生长的球晶内的大分子重新配置。