Systematic Microcanonical Analyses of Polymer Adsorption Transitions

Abstract

In detailed microcanonical analyses of densities of states obtained by extensive multicanonical Monte Carlo computer simulations, we investigate the caloric properties of conformational transitions adsorbing polymers experience near attractive substrates. For short chains and strong surface attraction, the microcanonical entropy turns out to be a convex function of energy in the transition regime, indicating that surface-entropic effects are relevant. Albeit known to be a continuous transition in the thermodynamic limit of infinitely long chains, the adsorption transition of nongrafted finite-length polymers thus exhibits a clear signature of a first-order-like transition, with coexisting phases of adsorbed and desorbed conformations. Another remarkable consequence of the convexity of the microcanonical entropy is that the transition is accompanied by a decrease of the microcanonical temperature with increasing energy. Since this is a characteristic physical effect it might not be ignored in analyses of cooperative macrostate transitions in finite systems.

8 pages, 6 figures

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• Aggregation of theta-polymers in spherical confinement
• Thermodynamics of polymer adsorption to a flexible membrane
• Polymer Adsorption on Curved Surfaces
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• Microcanonical characterization of first-order phase transitions in a generalized model for aggregation
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• Thermodynamics of the Adsorption of Flexible Polymers on Nanowires
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• Kinetics of first-order phase transitions from microcanonical thermostatistics
• Microcanonical analysis of a nonequilibrium phase transition