Polysoaps: The signatures of intrachain self assembly in theta solvents

Polysoaps are linear hydrophilic chains that incorporate, at intervals, covalently bound amphiphilic monomers. In water, the amphiphilic monomers self assemble into intrachain micelles thus endowing the chain with a secondary structure. Long polysoaps adopt a variety of configurations involving many intrachain micelles. While the stable configuration is that of a dense globule of closely packed micelles, it is also important to consider metastable configurations such as linear and branched strings of micelles. Theoretical discussion of these issues is presented for the case of a (.)theta solvent for the hydrophilic backbone.