Single polymer growth dynamics

In chain-growth polymerization, a chain grows continually to reach thousands of subunits. However, the real-time dynamics of chain growth remains unknown. Using magnetic tweezers, we visualized real-time polymer growth at the single-polymer level. Focusing on ring-opening metathesis polymerization, we found that the extension of a growing polymer under a pulling force does not increase continuously but exhibits wait-and-jump steps. These steps are attributable to the formation and unraveling of