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Updated: May 18, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Unexpected crossover dynamics of single polymer in a corrugated tube
Andres De Virgiliis1, Lukasz Kuban, Jaroslaw Paturej
1Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquimicas Teoricas y Aplicadas (INIFTA), C. C. 16, Suc. 4, 1900 La Plata, Argentina.
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 δ < 2.3, the axial diffusion coefficient D(∣∣) scales as D(∣∣) ∝ N(-3∕2), with chain length N, up to N ≈ 100 and 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.
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