Effects of Sinusoidal Electrophoretic Field on Chain Macromolecules in a Heterogeneous Medium: Structure and Dynamics by a Hybrid Computer Simulation

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2002

Department

Physics and Astronomy

School

Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Abstract

Using a hybrid simulation method, structural and dynamic response properties of chain macromolecules axe studied in a heterogeneous gel matrix in presence of an electrophoretic field E(t) = E-b + E-s sin(2pift), where E-b is the static field and E-s is the amplitude of sinusoidal field of frequency f. We find that the oscillating field enhances the macromolecular mobility at E-s > E-b while it becomes ineffective at E-s < E-b, consistent with the experimental work of Masubuchi et al. Enhanced segmental and global movement of molecules at E-s > E-b leads to interesting effects such as (i) a significant decrease in molecular clustering, (ii) reduced radius of gyration, and (iii) its linear response to Eb. Power law behavior of molecular motion, i.e., the variation rms displacement (R) with the time steps (t), R proportional to t(v), is sensitive to temperature, molecular weight, and field.

Publication Title

International Journal of Modern Physics C

Volume

13

Issue

5

First Page

625

Last Page

638

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