Original scientific paper
Divergence of persistent length of a semiflexible homopolymer chain in the stiff chain limit
Pramod Kumar Mishra
; Department of Physics, DSB Campus, Kumaun University, Naini Tal-263 002 (Uttarakhand), India
Abstract
We revisit analytical calculation [Mishra et al., Physica A 323 (2003) 453 and Mishra, NewYork Sci. J. 3 (1) (2010) 32 ] of the persistent length of a semiflexible homopolymer chain in the extremely stiff chain limit, k → 0, where, k is the stiffness of the chain, for the directed walk lattice model in two and three dimensions. Our study for the two-dimensional (square and rectangular) and three-dimensional (cubic) lattice case clearly indicates that the persistent length diverges according to the expression (1−gc) −1 , where gc is the critical value of the step fugacity required for polymerization of an infinitely long linear semiflexible homopolymer chain, and nature of the divergence is independent of the space dimension. This is obviously true because, in the case of extremely-stiff chain limit, the polymer chain is a onedimensional object and its shape is like a rigid rod.
Keywords
homopolymer; persistent length; extremely stiff chain
Hrčak ID:
302743
URI
Publication date:
1.7.2010.
Visits: 436 *