Pores, chain dynamics

A. Milchev, K. Binder. Polymer solutions confined in slit-hke pores with attractive walls An off-lattice Monte Carlo study of static properties and chain dynamics. J Computer-Aided Mater Des 2 167-181, 1995. 

Apart from the introductory section, the article is subdivided into four major sections NMR Methods Modeling of Chain Dynamics and Predictions for NMR Measurands Experimental Studies of Bulk Melts, Networks, and Concentrated Solutions and Chain Dynamics in Pores. First, the NMR techniques of interest in this context will be described. Second, the three fundamental polymer dynamics theories, namely the Rouse model, the tube/reptation model, and the renormalized Rouse theories are considered. The immense experimental NMR data available in the literature will be classified and described in the next section, where reference will be made to the model theories wherever possible. Finally, recent experiments, analytical treatments, and Monte Carlo simulations of polymer chains confined in pores mimicking the basic premiss of the tube/reptation model are discussed. 

The tube introduced in the frame of the Doi/Edwards reptation model for the treatment of bulk systems of entangled polymers is a fictitious one. As outlined above, the laws predicted on this basis (see Table 1) can provide only a rather crude picture failing to account for numerous experimental findings quantitatively as well as qualitatively. It may therefore be helpful to study chain dynamics in tube-hke pores of a physically real nature. 

The complications for fhe fheoretical description of proton fransporf in the interfacial region befween polymer and water are caused by the flexibility of fhe side chains, fheir random distributions at polymeric aggregates, and their partial penetration into the bulk of water-filled pores. The importance of an appropriate flexibilify of hydrated side chains has been explored recently in extensive molecular modeling studies. Continuum dielectric approaches and molecular dynamics simulations have been utilized to explore the effects of sfafic inferfacial charge distributions on proton mobility in single-pore environments of Molecular level simulations were employed... 

In spite of the highly simplified structure, this model retains essential characteristics for studying stable structural conformations and the concerted dynamics of polymer side chains, water, and protons at polymeric aggregates in PEMs. The approach implies that the effect of polymer dynamics on processes inside pores is primarily due to variations in chemical architecture, packing density, and vibrational flexibility of SGs. 

Fig. 8 Proposed model for gramicidin S in a membrane according to the orientational constraints obtained from and N-NMR. The upright backbone alignment (r 80°) and slant of the /3-sheets (p -45°) are compatible with the formation of an oligomeric /3-barrel that is stabilized by hydrogen bonds (dotted lines). A The oligomer is depicted sideways from within the lipid bilayer interior (showing only backbone atoms for clarity, but with hydrophobic side chains added to one of the monomers). Atomic coordinates of GS were taken from a monomeric structure [4], and the two DMPC lipid molecules are drawn to scale (from a molecular dynamics simulation coordinate file). The bilayer cross-section is coloured yellow in its hydrophobic core, red in the amphiphilic regions, and light blue near the aqueous surface. B Illustrates a top view of the putative pore, although the number of monomers remains speculative...

Other recent applications of AFM-SECM included the study of the iontophoretic transport of [Fe(CN)6]4 across a synthetic track-etched polyethylene terephthalate membrane by Gardner et al. [193]. They made the structure and flux measurements at the single pore level and found that only a fraction of candidate pore sites are active in transport. Demaille et al. used AFM-SECM technique in aqueous solutions to determine both the static and dynamical properties of nanometer-thick monolayers of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains end-grafted to a gold substrate surface [180]. 

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