title: Thermodynamics of polymer adsorption to a flexible membrane.
abstract: We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulations it is shown that the system exhibits a rich phase behavior ranging from highly ordered, compact to extended random coil structures, and from desorbed to completely adsorbed or even partially embedded conformations. These findings are summarized in a pseudophase diagram indicating the predominant class of conformations as a function of the external parameters temperature and polymer-membrane interaction strength. By comparison with adsorption to a stiff membrane surface it is shown that the flexibility of the membrane gives rise to qualitatively new behavior such as stretching of adsorbed conformations.
authors: Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Postfach 100 920, D-04009 Leipzig, Germany. karalus@thp.uni-koeln.de
authors: Steffen
authors: S
authors: Karalus
authors: Wolfhard
authors: W
authors: Janke
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Bachmann
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D003198:Computer Simulation; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011108:Polymers