CONFINEMENT OF DILUTE-SOLUTIONS OF LIVING POLYMERS

We investigate the thermodynamic properties of a dilute solution of li ving polymers confined between two solid repulsive walls. We consider both the case of rigid and of flexible macromolecules. When the confin ed system is taken to be at equilibrium with an external reservoir the living polymers behave similarly to a polydisperse solution of unbrea kable chains. However for closed gaps the behaviour is quite different from a classical polymer solution because the worm-like micelles can adapt their intrinsic polydispersity in order to release the confineme nt constraint. In particular, for rigid living polymers this leads to a divergence of the average chain-length in the limit of strong confin ement, as well as to a non-monotonic behaviour of the pressure acting on the walls.