Stiff polymer adsorption. Onset to pattern recognition
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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Covalent Attachment of Single Molecules for AFM-based Force Spectroscopy
Published on: March 16, 2020
1Departament de Física, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Abstract:
We present the results of extensive off-lattice Monte-Carlo simulations of a stiff polymer chain adsorbing onto a sticky periodic stripe-like pattern of variable width. We have analyzed, in terms of the chain length and rigidity, the adsorption and the pattern recognition process as a function of the stripe width. We have seen that this process is twofold: (i) the chain adsorbs rather isotropically onto the surface at a characteristic temperature T(c) and (ii) a further reduction in the temperature is needed for the chain to reorganize and adjust to the specific pattern. Such polymer reorganization has been studied through the evaluation of the chain degree of stretching and asphericity. We have found an optimal stripe width that maximizes the stretching. We have introduced a criteria to estimate the characteristic temperature at which the pattern recognition takes place T(r)
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