Modeling diffusion of adsorbed polymer with explicit solvent

Abstract

Computer simulations of a polymer chain of length N strongly adsorbed at the solid-liquid interface in the presence of explicit solvent are used to delineate the factors affecting the N dependence of the polymer lateral diffusion coefficient, D-parallel to. We find that surface roughness has a large influence, and D-parallel to scales as D-parallel to similar to N-x, with x approximate to 3/4 and x approximate to 1 for ideal smooth and corrugated surfaces, respectively. The first result is consistent with the hydrodynamics of a "particle" of radius of gyration R-G similar to N-nu (nu=0.75) translating parallel to a planar interface, while the second implies that the friction of the adsorbed chains dominates. These results are discussed in the context of recent measurements.