Fluids of semiflexible ring polymers: effective potentials and clustering

Author(s)
Marco Bernabei, Petra Bacova, Angel J. Moreno, Arturo Narros, Christos Likos
Abstract

We present a computational investigation of the structural properties of a fluid of semiflexible ring polymers. Stiffness is introduced by implementing intramolecular barriers. Because of these barriers, shrinkage of the rings is energetically unfavourable, and the ring size can exhibit a non-monotonic density dependence. At high concentrations the rings can swell and adopt open configurations that facilitate interpenetration and clustering. We obtain effective potentials between the centers-of-mass of the rings at infinite dilution, and explore their validity over the whole range of concentrations. Except for the limit of small rings, the effective fluid of ultrasoft particles provides a good description of the real system over a considerable range of densities, even above the overlap concentration. In particular the clustering behaviour predicted by the effective description is observed in the real system for a certain range of molecular masses. However, the effective description is incomplete. Inspection of the clusters of real rings reveals that these can arrange in a complex disordered phase formed by long columns of oblate rings, which are penetrated by bundles of elongated prolate rings. These anisotropic features of the real system are not captured by the standard effective approach, which only considers macromolecular centers-of-mass. This suggests the need to include the relative orientation between rings in the effective potentials.

Organisation(s)
Computational and Soft Matter Physics
External organisation(s)
Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), University of the Basque Country
Journal
Soft Matter
Volume
9
Pages
1287-1300
No. of pages
14
ISSN
1744-683X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2SM27199K
Publication date
2013
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103036 Theoretical physics, 103029 Statistical physics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/5c11c238-2f06-4c17-a374-b7238e6ca759