title: Flow-induced translocation of star polymers through a nanopore.
abstract: We study the flow-induced translocation of the star polymers through a nanopore using a hybrid simulation method that incorporates a lattice-Boltzmann approach for the fluid into a molecular dynamics model for the polymer. Our simulation demonstrates the existence of an optimal forward arm number of the star polymers captured by the nanopore, and illustrates its significance in determining the critical velocity flux of the star polymer translocation through the nanopore. Importantly, we find that the critical velocity flux of the star polymers is independent of the arm polymerization degree, but exhibits a linear dependence on the arm number. Based on previous scaling arguments and our simulation results, we conclude a linear dependence of the critical velocity flux on the arm number of the star polymers, which can successfully describe the dynamics of the star polymer translocation. Our simulation results rationalize the experimental results for the dependence of the critical velocity flux on the arm polymerization degree and the arm number of the star polymers, which provide new insights for the characterization and the purification of the star polymers.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China. tfshi@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China. tfshi@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaozheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China. tfshi@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Tongfei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shi