Collapse dynamics of a polymer chain: Theory and simulation

We present a scaling theory describing the collapse of a homopolymer chain in poor solvent. At time t after the beginning of the collapse, the original Gaussian chain of length N is streamlined to form N/g segments of length R(t), each containing $g \sim t$ monomers. These segments are statistical q...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2002-08, Vol.59 (3), p.391-397
Main Authors: Abrams, C. F, Lee, N.-K, Obukhov, S. P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
61.25.Hq
64.60.Ak
83.10.Rs
Applied sciences
Exact sciences and technology
Organic polymers
Physicochemistry of polymers
Properties and characterization
Solution and gel properties
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We present a scaling theory describing the collapse of a homopolymer chain in poor solvent. At time t after the beginning of the collapse, the original Gaussian chain of length N is streamlined to form N/g segments of length R(t), each containing $g \sim t$ monomers. These segments are statistical quantities representing cylinders of length $R \sim t^{1/2}$ and diameter but structured out of stretched arrays of spherical globules. This prescription incorporates the capillary instability. We compare the time-dependent structure factor derived for our theory with that obtained from ultra-large-scale molecular-dynamics simulation with explicit solvent. This is the first time such a detailed comparison of theoretical and simulation predictions of collapsing chain structure has been attempted. The favorable agreement between the theoretical and computed structure factors supports the picture of the coarse-graining process during polymer collapse.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2002-00207-5