https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2013-01741-3
Regular Article
Polymer-attractive spherical cage system
1 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Postfach 100 920, 04009 Leipzig, Germany
2 Department of Physics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ankara University, Tandogan, 06100 Ankara, Turkey
a e-mail: Handan.Arkin@itp.uni-leipzig.de
b e-mail: Wolfhard.Janke@itp.uni-leipzig.de
Received:
30
November
2012
Revised:
6
December
2012
Published online:
31
January
2013
We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain inside an attractive sphere. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained polymer governed by Lennard-Jones interactions of the monomers and an attractive sphere potential which follows by integrating the monomer-monomer interaction over the (inner) surface of the sphere. By means of extensive multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations it is shown that the system exhibits a rich phase diagram in the adsorption strength-temperature (ε − T) plane ranging from highly ordered and compact to extended and random coil structures and from desorbed to partially or even completely adsorbed conformations. These findings are identified with different energetic and structural observables. The resulting phase diagram in the ε − T plane is compared with that for a polymer adsorbing to a plane, attractive substrate obtained previously by Möddel, Bachmann, and one of the authors.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2013
