Polymers in crowded environment under stretching force: Globule-coil transitions.
We study flexible polymer macromolecules in a crowded (porous) environment, modeling them as self-attracting self-avoiding walks on site-diluted percolative lattices in space dimensions d=2,3 . The influence of stretching force on the polymer folding and the properties of globule-coil transitions are analyzed. Applying the pruned-enriched Rosenbluth chain-growth method, we estimate the transition temperature TTheta between collapsed and extended polymer configurations and construct the phase diagrams of the globule-coil coexistence when varying temperature and stretching force. The transition to a completely stretched state, caused by applying force, is discussed as well.
Blavatska
Viktoria
V
Institut für Theoretische Physik and Centre for Theoretical Sciences (NTZ), Universität Leipzig, Postfach 100 920, D-04009 Leipzig, Germany. blavatska@itp.uni-leipzig.de
Janke
Wolfhard
W
D003198:Computer Simulation; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
D011108:Polymers