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Conformation of a Comb-like Chain in Solution: Effect of Backbone Rigidity
Xinghong Mai1, Peng Hao1, Danfeng Liu1
1Xinjiang Laboratory of Phase Transitions and Microstructures in Condensed Matter Physics, College of Physical Science and Technology, Yili Normal University, Yining 835000, P.R. China.
Abstract:
We study the effect of backbone rigidity on the conformation of comb-like chains in dilute solution by using Brownian dynamics simulations. Our results demonstrate that the backbone rigidity can control the effect of side chains on the conformation of comb-like chains; that is, the relative strength of the excluded-volume interactions from backbone monomer-graft and graft-graft to backbone monomer-monomer gradually weakens with the increase of backbone rigidity. Only when the rigidity of the backbone tends to be flexible and the grafting density is high is the effect of excluded volume of graft-graft on the conformation of comb-like chains significant enough, and other cases can be ignored. Our results show that the radius of gyration of comb-like chains and the persistence length of the backbone are exponentially related to the stretching factor, where the power exponent exhibits an increase with the increase of the strength of bending energy. These finds provide new insights for characterizing the structure properties of comb-like chains.
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