Eur. Phys. J. E (2016) 39: 109
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2016-16109-3

Regular Article

Effects of nanopore size on the flow-induced star polymer translocation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 130022, Changchun, China
² Xinjiang Laboratory of Phase Transitions and Microstructures in Condensed Matter Physics, College of Physical Science and Technology, Yili Normal University, 835000, Yining, China
³ National Lab of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China

^* e-mail: mmding@ciac.ac.cn
^** e-mail: xzduan@ciac.ac.cn
^*** e-mail: tfshi@ciac.ac.cn

Received: 18 August 2016
Accepted: 31 October 2016
Published online: 21 November 2016

Abstract

We study the effects of the nanopore size on the flow-induced capture of the star polymer by a nanopore and the afterward translocation, using a hybrid simulation method that couples point particles into a fluctuating lattice-Boltzmann fluid. Our simulation demonstrates that the optimal forward arm number decreases slowly with the increase of the length of the nanopore. Compared to the minor effect of the length of the nanopore, the optimal forward arm number obviously increases with the increase of the width of the nanopore, which can clarify the current controversial issue for the optimal forward arm number between the theory and experiments. In addition, our results indicate that the critical velocity flux of the star polymer is independent of the nanopore size. Our work bridges the experimental results and the theoretical understanding, which can provide comprehensive insights for the characterization and the purification of the star polymers.