Polymer in Confinement

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to submit a contribution to a Special Issue on the properties of highly-confined polymers. Understanding fundamental changes of polymer conformation and dynamics under strong confinement could have implications in fields ranging from biophysics (gene translation, viral packing, bio-mechanics) to material science (thin film mechanics, filtration/ion-exchange membrane, drug delivery capsules). Strong confinement and surface interactions induce changes to polymer conformation, shifts in the polymer phase transition, enhance polymer knotting, and hinder or facilitate polymer transport in crowded environments. Recent advances in experimental and theoretical modeling have facilitated investigations of microtubules and actin fibers in the cell, DNA in nanopore/nanochannels, dense gels, and the cell nucleus, and large polymers adsorbed on surfaces. This Special Issue aims to provide a forum to discuss key present issues and current obstacles to spur research and solutions in this important area.

Dr. Yeng-Long Chen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.