Cargando…

Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force

We use Langevin dynamics to study the deformations of linear and ring polymers in different confinements by applying compression and stretching forces on their two sides. Our results show that the compression deformations are the results of an interplay among of polymer rigidity, degree of confineme...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chen, Wenduo, Kong, Xiangxin, Wei, Qianqian, Chen, Huaiyu, Liu, Jiayin, Jiang, Dazhi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8659573/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34883696
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13234193
_version_ 1784612995210412032
author Chen, Wenduo
Kong, Xiangxin
Wei, Qianqian
Chen, Huaiyu
Liu, Jiayin
Jiang, Dazhi
author_facet Chen, Wenduo
Kong, Xiangxin
Wei, Qianqian
Chen, Huaiyu
Liu, Jiayin
Jiang, Dazhi
author_sort Chen, Wenduo
collection PubMed
description We use Langevin dynamics to study the deformations of linear and ring polymers in different confinements by applying compression and stretching forces on their two sides. Our results show that the compression deformations are the results of an interplay among of polymer rigidity, degree of confinement, and force applied. When the applied force is beyond the threshold required for the buckling transition, the semiflexible chain under the strong confinement firstly buckles; then comes helical deformation. However, under the same force loading, the semiflexible chain under the weaker confinement exhibits buckling instability and shrinks from the folded ends/sides until it becomes three-folded structures. This happens because the strong confinement not only strongly reduces the buckling wavelength, but also increases the critical buckling force threshold. For the weakly confined polymers, in compression process, the flexible linear polymer collapses into condensed states under a small external force, whereas the ring polymer only shows slight shrinkage, due to the excluded volume interactions of two strands in the crowded states. These results are essential for understanding the deformations of the ring biomacromolecules and polymer chains in mechanical compression or driven transport.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8659573
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-86595732021-12-10 Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force Chen, Wenduo Kong, Xiangxin Wei, Qianqian Chen, Huaiyu Liu, Jiayin Jiang, Dazhi Polymers (Basel) Article We use Langevin dynamics to study the deformations of linear and ring polymers in different confinements by applying compression and stretching forces on their two sides. Our results show that the compression deformations are the results of an interplay among of polymer rigidity, degree of confinement, and force applied. When the applied force is beyond the threshold required for the buckling transition, the semiflexible chain under the strong confinement firstly buckles; then comes helical deformation. However, under the same force loading, the semiflexible chain under the weaker confinement exhibits buckling instability and shrinks from the folded ends/sides until it becomes three-folded structures. This happens because the strong confinement not only strongly reduces the buckling wavelength, but also increases the critical buckling force threshold. For the weakly confined polymers, in compression process, the flexible linear polymer collapses into condensed states under a small external force, whereas the ring polymer only shows slight shrinkage, due to the excluded volume interactions of two strands in the crowded states. These results are essential for understanding the deformations of the ring biomacromolecules and polymer chains in mechanical compression or driven transport. MDPI 2021-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8659573/ /pubmed/34883696 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13234193 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chen, Wenduo
Kong, Xiangxin
Wei, Qianqian
Chen, Huaiyu
Liu, Jiayin
Jiang, Dazhi
Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title_full Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title_fullStr Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title_full_unstemmed Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title_short Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force
title_sort compression and stretching of confined linear and ring polymers by applying force
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8659573/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34883696
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13234193
work_keys_str_mv AT chenwenduo compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce
AT kongxiangxin compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce
AT weiqianqian compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce
AT chenhuaiyu compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce
AT liujiayin compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce
AT jiangdazhi compressionandstretchingofconfinedlinearandringpolymersbyapplyingforce