Unexpected crossover dynamics of single polymer in a corrugated tube

Abstract

We present molecular dynamics study of a generic (coarse-grained) model for single-polymer diffusion confined in a corrugated cylinder. For a narrow tube, i.e., diameter of the cylinder $\delta <2.3$, the axial diffusion coefficient $D_{||}$ scales as $D_{||}\propto N^{-3/2}$, with chain length $N$, up to $N\approx 100$ then crosses over to Rouse scaling for the larger $N$ values. The $N^{-3/2}$ scaling is due to the large fluctuation of the polymer chain along its fully stretched equilibrium conformation. The stronger scaling, namely $N^{-3/2}$, is not observed for an atomistically smooth tube and/or for a cylinder with larger diameter.

10 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, version accepted by J. Chem. Phys

References in corpus (2)

• Polymers near Metal Surfaces: Selective Adsorption and Global Conformations
• Unexpected relaxation dynamics of a self-avoiding polymer in cylindrical confinement