It looks like rubber but isn't: What goes on in a concentrated solution of circular polymers?

The experimental and numerical study of the behavior of polymers in concentrated solutions is a line of research that is still highly active. In the past, it enabled us to understand why materials like rubber have certain elastic properties. A distinctive feature of these systems is that the long “chained” molecules composing them tend to penetrate each other and interweave at their ends forming very durable bonds that make them always return to their initial conformation whenever they are “stretched”.

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