Structural transitions of semiflexible polymers with different bending rigidities

2 Structural transitions of semiflexible polymers with different bending rigidities 

We consider the same model as in Section 11,2, but here we assume that all monomers = 1. of the /tcth chain (/r = 1. M) at positions x, are hydrophobic (A). The bonds between adjacent monomers are taken to be rigid (bead-stick model) and pairwise interactions among nonbonded monomers are modeled by a Lennard-Jones potential 

For the comparison with the heteropolymer aggregation, we consider a bending rigidity K = 0.25, which is at the rather floppy end of semiflexibility. Thus, the single-chain energy reads 

All chains are assumed to have the same degree of polymerization, i.e., the same number of monomers, =N, fjL=, . M  

In Fig. 12.1(a), the specific-heat curve for a system of two identical semiflexible polymers (2 x i3) is compared with the energetic fluctuations of a single chain (1 ycA ). The single chain exhibits a very weak coil globule collapse transition (shoulder near T 0.88), whereas the crystallization near T 0.24 is a pronounced, separate process. The thermodynamic phase behavior of single semiflexible polymers in solvent has already been discussed in Chapter 7. The first result for the semiflexible multiple-cham system obtained from 

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