Adsorption assisted translocation of a chain molecule through a pore in a spherical vesicle

Abstract

We analyze the free energy for translocation of a polymer from the outside of a spherical vesicle to the inside. The process is assumed to be driven by the adsorption of the polymer on the inner surface of the vesicle. We argue that in the case where the polymer is adsorbed on the outer surface too, the entropic barrier for translocation is absent. We analyze the adsorption energy and find the free energy profile for the process. We argue that the motion corresponds to a polymer crossing a region with a change in free energy per segment. Based upon our earlier analsis of the behaviour of kinks in such a problem, we conclude that the translocation can occur with a crossing time $t_{cross}\sim N$.

References in corpus (1)

• Kink motion in the Kramers problem for a chain molecule

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Electrophoresis of a polyelectrolyte through a nanopore
• Passage Times for Polymer Translocation Pulled through a Narrow Pore
• Non-driven polymer translocation through a nanopore: computational evidence that the escape and relaxation processes are coupled
• Coarse-grained simulation of polymer translocation through an artificial nanopore