Giant Casimir Nonequilibrium Forces Drive Coil to Globule Transition in Polymers
We develop a theory to probe the effect of nonequilibrium fluctuation-induced forces on the size of a polymer confined between two horizontal, thermally conductive plates subject to a constant temperature gradient, ∇T. We assume that (a) the solvent is good and (b) the distance between the plates is...
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Published in | The journal of physical chemistry letters Vol. 10; no. 11; pp. 2788 - 2793 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
American Chemical Society
06.06.2019
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | We develop a theory to probe the effect of nonequilibrium fluctuation-induced forces on the size of a polymer confined between two horizontal, thermally conductive plates subject to a constant temperature gradient, ∇T. We assume that (a) the solvent is good and (b) the distance between the plates is large so that in the absence of a thermal gradient the polymer is a coil, whose size scales with the number of monomers as N ν, with ν ≈ 0.6. We find that above a critical temperature gradient, ∇T c ≈ N –5/4, a favorable attractive monomer–monomer interaction due to the giant Casimir force (GCF) overcomes the chain conformational entropy, resulting in a coil–globule transition. Our predictions can be verified using light-scattering experiments with polymers, such as polystyrene or polyisoprene in organic solvents in which the GCF is attractive. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1948-7185 1948-7185 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b00695 |