Thermodynamics of polymer adsorption to a flexible membrane

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2011 Sep;84(3 Pt 1):031803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.031803. Epub 2011 Sep 21.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Computer Simulation
  • Elastic Modulus
  • Membranes, Artificial*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polymers