Glassy conformations in wrinkled membranes.
Partially polymerized membranes display a striking mechanical transition at low temperature known as the wrinkling transition. Fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy as well as profile measurements using an atomic force microscope revealed the existence of three degrees of wrinkling depending on the degree of the membrane polymerization. At low polymerization the membrane undergoes a cascade of wrinkling to form a folded phase with a characteristic exponent eta equal to 3, at intermediate polymerization, the membrane is in an intermediate-wrinkled phase (similar to the crumpling of an elastic sheet) with eta approximately 2.5, while at high polymerization the membrane undergoes an abrupt "compaction" to the wrinkled-rough phase with eta approximately 2.
Chaieb
Sahraoui
S
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. sch@uiuc.edu
Natrajan
Vinay K
VK
El-rahman
Ahmed Abd
AA
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D015595:Skin Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors