Polymer in a bath of chemical reaction

Our experiments show that the active environment of an enzymatic chemical reaction influences a  polymer’s average end-to-end distance: at low enzymatic activity, chains collapse slightly but higher activity promotes chain extension, suggesting an activity-dependent coupling between effective agitation and internal degrees of freedom of the polymer. These measurements combine fluorescent correlation spectroscopy with single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (FCS-smFRET) at ns-scale regarding 5 kDa polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains terminally labeled with donor, Dylight 488, and acceptor, Alexa Fluor 568. Urease-catalyzed hydrolysis of urea is the chemical reaction.