Publications


Title : Confinement causes opposite effects on the folding transition of a single polymer chain depending on its stiffness

Language: English
Type: Article
Authors: Yuji Higuchi, Takafumi Iwaki and Kenichi Yoshikawa
Journal: Physical Review E
Volume: 84
Number: 2
Month: 8
Year: 2011
Actual year: 2011
Pages: 21924-5
URL:   http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.021924
doi:   10.1103/PhysRevE.84.021924
Abstract: We investigated the folding transition between an elongated coil state and a compact state on a single polymer chain confined in a small space with different stiffness with the aid of Monte Carlo simulation. In flexible polymer, the folding transition is retarded in a confined space. In contrast, the transition is promoted for a semiflexible chain, in which the discontinuity of the volume change occupied by a single chain is diminished by confinement. Such a unique confinement effect is interpreted in terms of conformational entropy and self-avoiding repulsive interaction.

"Confinement causes opposite effects on the folding transition of a single polymer chain depending on its stiffness"

Yuji Higuchi, Takafumi Iwaki and Kenichi Yoshikawa, Physical Review E, 84, 21924-5 (2011)