Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Single polymer Adsorption to Solid Surfaces

Abstract

Adsorption of polymers to surfaces is crucial for understanding many fundamental processes in nature. Recent experimental studies indicate that the adsorption dynamics is dominated by non-equilibrium effects. We investigate the adsorption of a single polymer of length $N$ to a planar solid surface in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions. We find that for weak adsorption energies the adsorption time scales $\sim N^{(1+2\nu )/(1+\nu )}$, where $\nu$ is the Flory exponent for the polymer. We argue that in this regime the single chain adsorption is closely related to a field-driven polymer translocation through narrow pores. Surprisingly, for high adsorption energies the adsorption time becomes longer, as it scales $\sim N^{(1+\nu )}$, which is explained by strong stretching of the unadsorbed part of the polymer close to the adsorbing surface. These two dynamic regimes are separated by an energy scale that is characterised by non-equilibrium contributions during the adsorption process.

11 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, substantial added material, to appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter as a Fast Track Communication

References in corpus (7)

• Anomalous Dynamics of Unbiased Polymer Translocation through a Narrow Pore
• Non-Equilibrium in Adsorbed Polymer Layers
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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Rouse Modes of Self-avoiding Flexible Polymers
• Polymer Chain Adsorption on a Solid Surface: Scaling Arguments and Computer Simulations