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Polymer translocation through a nanopore. II. Excluded volume effect.
1Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
The Journal of Chemical Physics
|July 23, 2004
Summary
Self-avoiding polymer chains exhibit nonmonotonic translocation times due to excluded volume interactions. Translocation time depends on chain length, excluded volume strength, and sphere size asymmetry.
Area of Science:
- Polymer physics
- Soft matter physics
- Statistical mechanics
Background:
- Previous studies explored Gaussian chain translocation.
- Excluded volume interactions significantly alter polymer behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate self-avoiding chain translocation between spheres through a pore.
- Analyze the impact of excluded volume interactions on translocation dynamics.
Main Methods:
- Self-consistent field theory (SCFT) formalism.
- Theoretical modeling of polymer transport.
Main Results:
- Free energy barrier for pore entry depends nonmonotonically on chain length (N).
- Average arrival time shows nonmonotonic dependence on N for self-avoiding chains.
- A local free energy minimum develops during translocation, influenced by excluded volume strength (w) and sphere size ratio.
- Translocation time (tau) increases with w for similar sphere sizes, but decreases for asymmetric spheres.
- Translocation time (tau) depends nonmonotonically on pore length.
Conclusions:
- Excluded volume interactions introduce complex dependencies in polymer translocation dynamics.
- Chain length, excluded volume strength, and confinement geometry critically influence translocation efficiency and time.