Non-monotonous polymer translocation time across corrugated channels
- Author(s)
- Valentino Bianco, Paolo Malgaretti
- Abstract
We study the translocation of polymers across varying-section channels. Using systematic approximations, we derive a simplified model that reduces the problem of polymer translocation through varying-section channels to that of a point-like particle under the action of an effective potential. Such a model allows us to identify the relevant parameters controlling the polymer dynamics and, in particular, their translocation time. By comparing our analytical results with numerical simulations we show that, under suitable conditions, our model provides reliable predictions of the dynamics of both Gaussian and self-avoiding polymers, in two-and three-dimensional confinements. Moreover, both theoretical predictions, as well as Brownian dynamic results, show a non-monotonous dependence of polymer translocation velocity as a function of polymer size, a feature that can be exploited for polymer separation.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona , Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Universität Stuttgart
- Journal
- Journal of Chemical Physics
- Volume
- 145
- No. of pages
- 13
- ISSN
- 0021-9606
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4961697
- Publication date
- 09-2016
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106006 Biophysics, 103023 Polymer physics, 103029 Statistical physics, 103018 Materials physics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/8bad3d10-c39c-4063-b03b-5836ba2a9d45