Fragmentation of fiberlike structures: sonication studies of cylindrical block copolymers micelles and behavioral comparisons to biological fibrils

The formation of fiberlike micelles in hexane with a very narrow weight-average distribution of lengths and the nature of their fragmentation following exposure to ultrasound are described. The results have shown that these fibers also rupture according to Gaussian fragmentation model and display a fracture rate that is very sensitive to fiber length.