Kinetic Trapping of Large Amount of Long Polymers in Nanopores

It is well-established that when polymer size exceeds the size of a confining space, the equilibrium partition of polymer between the confined space and the bulk solution is zero. Surprisingly, we found that the long water-soluble polymers with a small hydrophobic group can be efficiently trapped inside the water channels (nanopores) of the hexagonal phase of non-ionic surfactant.