Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 38: Computational Physics of Soft Matter I

CPP 38.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10:30–10:45, C 264

The role of stiffness in polymer aggregation: Leading from amorphous aggregates to polymer bundles — •Johannes Zierenberg and Wolfhard Janke — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Germany

We use parallel multicanonical simulations of a few homopolymers in order to map out generic temperature-stiffness structural phase diagrams, from flexible to stiff polymers. The systematic overview highlights the key role of stiffness on structural phases in polymer aggregation for an entire class of semiflexible polymers covering both the limit of flexible theta polymers and the worm-like chain limit. The structural motifs range from amorphous aggregates to twisted polymer bundles, for rather flexible and rather stiff polymers respectively. For the first-order aggregation transition of several polymers, we provide strong evidence that the free-energy barrier increases with stiffness. Thus, this general study of an entire class of semiflexible polymers supports recent claims that the free-energy barrier for the transition into bundles is larger than for the transition into amorphous aggregates.