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Stretching tethered polymer chains: density functional approach
M Borówko1, W Rżysko, S Sokołowski
1Department for the Modelling of Physico-Chemical Processes, MCS University, 20031 Lublin, Poland.
Abstract:
We propose application of density functional theory to calculate the force acting on a selected segment of a tethered polymer chain that leads to stretching the chain. The density functional allows one to determine the effects due to the presence of other chains and solvent molecules. For high and moderate solvent densities the plot of the force versus the distance of the segment from the surface exhibits oscillatory behavior that has not been predicted by other approaches.
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