Molecular description of the collapse of hydrophobic polymer chains in water.
We propose a self-consistent molecular theory of conformational properties of flexible polymers in solution. It is applied to the collapse of a hydrophobic polymer chain in water, and can be readily generalized to any polymer-solvent system (e.g., copolymers with high complexity). We stress the potential of this method for a variety of problems, such as protein folding.
Livadaru
Lucian
L
National Institute for Nanotechnology, National Research Council of Canada, 9107-116 St., W6-010, ECERF Bldg., Edmonton, AB, T6G 2V4, Canada.
Kovalenko
Andriy
A