Conformation and intramolecular relaxation dynamics of semiflexible randomly hyperbranched polymers

The conformational and dynamic properties of semiflexible randomly hyperbranched polymers are investigated in dilute solutions within the framework of optimized Rouse-Zimm formalism. Semiflexibility is incorporated by restricting the directions and orientations of the respective bond vectors, while hydrodynamic interactions are modeled through the preaveraged Oseen tensor. The effect of semiflexibility is typically reflected in the intermediate frequency regime of the viscoelastic relaxation moduli where the bond orientation angle restores the characteristic power-law scaling in fractal structures, as in randomly hyperbranched polymers. Despite the absence of this power-law scaling regime in flexible randomly hyperbranched polymers and in earlier models of semiflexible randomly branched polymers due to weak disorder [C. von Ferber and A. Blumen, J. Chem. Phys. 116, 8616 (2002)], this power-law behavior may be reinstated by explicitly modeling hyperbranched polymers as a Vicsek fractals. The length of this power-law zone in the intermediate frequency region is a combined function of the number of monomers and the degree of semiflexibility. A clear conformational transition from compact to open structures is facilitated by changing the bond orientation angle, where the compressed conformations are compact, while the expanded ones are relatively non-compact. The extent of compactness in the compressed conformations are much less compared to the semiflexible dendrimers, which resemble hard spheres. The fractal dimensions of the compressed and expanded conformations calculated from the Porod's scaling law vary as a function of the bond orientation angle, spanning the entire range of three distinct scaling regimes of linear polymers in three-dimensions. The results confirm that semiflexibility exactly accounts for the excluded volume interactions which are expected to be significant for such polymers with complex topologies.