title: Surface-induced phase transitions of wormlike chains in slit confinement.
abstract: On the basis of a self-consistent field theory treatment of semi-flexible polymer chains, we analyze the effects of the flexibility on the structure of polymers sterically confined between two parallel, structureless walls separated by a distance. The model is built from a wormlike chain formalism which crosses over from the rod limit to the flexible limit, and the Onsager-type interaction which describes the orientation-dependent excluded-volume interaction. Three surface states were obtained from the numerical solution to the theory: uniaxial, biaxial, and condensed. As the overall density increases in such a lyotropic system, first order phase transitions between uniaxial and biaxial states, biaxial and condensed states can occur.
authors.affiliation: LMAM and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China. pzhang@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shiwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: LMAM and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China. pzhang@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Pingwen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. jeffchen@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Jeff Z Y
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Chen