Surface effects in the crystallization process of elastic flexible polymers
arXiv:1002.2118 · doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2009.05.052
Abstract
Investigating thermodynamic properties of liquid-solid transitions of flexible homopolymers with elastic bonds by means of multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations, we find crystalline conformations that resemble ground-state structures of Lennard-Jones clusters. This allows us to set up a structural classification scheme for finite-length flexible polymers and their freezing mechanism in analogy to atomic cluster formation. Crystals of polymers with "magic length" turn out to be perfectly icosahedral.