2022 Impact factor 1.8
Soft Matter and Biological Physics


Eur. Phys. J. E 7, 65-71 (2002)
DOI: 10.1140/epje/i200101124

Drift of a polymer chain in a porous medium -A Monte Carlo study

K. Avramova and A. Milchev

Institute for Physical Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, G. Bonchev Str., Block 11, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria

kati@ipc.bas.bg

(Received 20 August 2001 and Received in final form 19 November 2001)

Abstract
We investigate the drift of an end-labeled telehelic polymer chain in a frozen disordered medium under the action of a constant force applied to the one end of the macromolecule by means of an off-lattice bead spring Monte Carlo model. The length of the polymers N is varied in the range 8<N<128, and the obstacle concentration in the medium C is varied from zero up to the percolation threshold $C\approx 0.75$. For field intensities below a C-dependent critical field strength $B_\ab{c}$, where jamming effects become dominant, we find that the conformational properties of the drifting chains can be interpreted as described by a scaling theory based on Pincus blobs. The variation of drag velocity with C in this interval of field intensities is qualitatively described by the law of Mackie-Meares. The threshold field intensity $B_\ab{c}$ itself is found to decrease linearly with C.

PACS
36.20.-r - Macromolecules and polymer molecules.
36.20.Ey - Conformation (statistics and dynamics).
82.45.-h - Electrochemistry and electrophoresis.


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002