Giant nonmonotonic stretching response of a self-associating polymer in shear flow.

Self-associating polymers are ubiquitous in synthetic and biological systems. Here, we use a combination of simulation and theory to show that these polymers exhibit a counterintuitive strong nonmonotonic stretching response in shear flow. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this behavior can be tuned by controlling the barrier for dissociation of the bonds and develop a quantitative and predictive theory based on conformational transitions to explain the observed behavior. Our results can be important in understanding previous experimental and theoretical observations and further aid in the development of novel smart materials.