Nonmonotonous Translocation Time of Polymers across Pores

Locatelli E, Bianco V, Valeriani C, Malgaretti P (2023)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society

Book Volume: 131

Article Number: 048101

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.048101

Abstract

Polymers confined in corrugated channels, i.e., channels of varying amplitude, display multiple local maxima and minima of the diffusion coefficient upon increasing their degree of polymerization N. We propose a theoretical effective free energy for linear polymers based on a Fick-Jacobs approach. We validate the predictions against numerical data, obtaining quantitative agreement for the effective free energy, the diffusion coefficient, and the mean first passage time. Finally, we employ the effective free energy to compute the polymer lengths Nmin at which the diffusion coefficient presents a minimum: we find a scaling expression that we rationalize with a blob model. Our results could be useful to design porous adsorbers, that separate polymers of different sizes without the action of an external flow.

Involved external institutions

University of Padua / Universita degli Studi di Padova IT Italy (IT) Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) ES Spain (ES) Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Locatelli, E., Bianco, V., Valeriani, C., & Malgaretti, P. (2023). Nonmonotonous Translocation Time of Polymers across Pores. Physical Review Letters, 131(4). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.048101

MLA:

Locatelli, Emanuele, et al. "Nonmonotonous Translocation Time of Polymers across Pores." Physical Review Letters 131.4 (2023).

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