Semiflexible polymers confined in soft tubes

We discuss various conformations for a polymer (of persistent length l(p)) confined into a deformable tube (the wall being a lipid bilayer with a certain surface tension sigma and curvature energy K). Our study assumes that there is no adsorption of the chain on the wall. Three states are compared:...

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Détails bibliographiques
Publié dans:Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. - 1985. - 21(2005), 9 vom: 26. Apr., Seite 4144-8
Auteur principal: Brochard-Wyart, F (Auteur)
Autres auteurs: Tanaka, T, Borghi, N, de Gennes, P-G
Format: Article
Langue:English
Publié: 2005
Accès à la collection:Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Sujets:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Lipid Bilayers Polymers
Description
Résumé:We discuss various conformations for a polymer (of persistent length l(p)) confined into a deformable tube (the wall being a lipid bilayer with a certain surface tension sigma and curvature energy K). Our study assumes that there is no adsorption of the chain on the wall. Three states are compared: (a) an unperturbed tube, plus a confined chain, (b) a tube swollen in all the region surrounding the chain (similar to a snake eating a sausage), (c) a globule, a roughly spherical coil surrounded by a strongly deformed tube. We construct a (qualitative) phase diagram for these systems with two variables: the surface tension sigma and the degree of polymerization N. Our main conclusion is that "globules" usually win over "snakes"
Description:Date Completed 28.07.2006
Date Revised 15.11.2006
published: Print
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1520-5827