Fig. 2: Chemical system used to probe reproducibility of agitation.
From: Automated device for continuous stirring while sampling in liquid chromatography systems
Oxidation of the dithiol building-block (either by air or by sodium perborate (NaBO3)) leads to the formation of a mixture of disulfide macrocycles of different ring sizes (not shown). Of these, the hexamer self-assembles. The kinetics of autocatalytic formation of hexamer is highly sensitive to agitation, with growth rate depending linearly on the number of fiber ends.5 Fibers are fragile and the number of fiber ends is determined by the agitation regime.
