Polyether molecules tend to dissolve better in water as they contain more oxygen and fewer carbon atoms. But there are very counter-intuitive exceptions to this trend, the most well-known being the widely used plastic POM. It has the highest possible oxygen/carbon ratio but is completely insoluble. In the current issue of Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz now put forth a definitive explanation.
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Source: Phys.org