title: Dynamics of polymer translocation through a nanopore induced by different sizes of crowding agents.
abstract: Using both theoretical analysis and Langevin dynamics simulations in two dimensions, we investigate the dynamics of polymer translocation through a nanopore induced by different sizes of the mobile crowding agents, where the crowding agents have equal area fraction φ and their diameters are σ and σb ≥ σ at cis and trans sides, respectively. The chain prefers moving to the side with bigger crowding agents as expected, however, we find the size difference between crowding agents plays a complicated role in the probability of polymer translocation from cis to trans side, the translocation time τ and its distribution, and the translocation exponent. In particular, with increasing σb, the translocation probability shows a maximum value and τ has a minimum value. These results can be interpreted by the effective driving force, which always increases with increasing φ but has a maximum value with increasing σb.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230026, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Kaifu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D058608:Nanopores; D010316:Particle Size; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers