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Coupling of the Polymer Threading a Membrane Transition to the Membrane Adsorption Transition

Published

Author(s)

Edmund A. DiMarzio, Kathleen M. Flynn

Abstract

A polymer molecule threading through a pore in a plane membrane is allowed to adsorb on either or both sides of the membrane. Further, it is confined to the vicinity of the membrane by two plane barriers lying on either side of the membrane. A lattice model of this problem is exactly solvable by matrix techniques. The equilibrium translocation behavior is described as a function of the polymer MW, the membrane adsorption energies, the solution properties, the barrier separations, applied force, and the temperature. The transition is first-order, meaning that small changes in any of these 9 quantities can in the limit of infinite MW, completely translocate the polymer. The work of Park and Sung who used Smoluchowski-like equations to calculate translocation transit times is generalized by use of the sea-snake model which is relevant to isolated polymer chains in solution.
Citation
Polymer Gels and Networks

Keywords

membrane, polymer, polymer adsorption, polymer threading, polymer translocation

Citation

DiMarzio, E. and Flynn, K. (2008), Coupling of the Polymer Threading a Membrane Transition to the Membrane Adsorption Transition, Polymer Gels and Networks (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created October 16, 2008