%0 Journal Article
%A Junghans, C.
%A Bachmann, M.
%A Janke, W.
%T Statistical Mechanics of Aggregation and Crystallization for Semiflexible Polymers
%J epl
%V 87
%@ 0295-5075
%C Les Ulis
%I EDP Sciences
%M PreJuSER-5135
%P 40002
%D 2009
%Z This work is partially supported by the DFG (German Science Foundation) under Grant No. JA 483/24-1/2/3, the Leipzig Graduate School of Excellence "BuildMoNa", and by the Max Planck Society. Support by a NIC supercomputer time grant (No. hlz11) of the Forschungszentrum Julich is acknowledged.
%X By means of multicanonical computer simulations, we investigate thermodynamic properties of the aggregation of interacting semiflexible polymers. We analyze a mesoscopic bead-stick model, where nonbonded monomers interact via Lennard-Jones forces. Aggregation turns out to be a process, in which the constituents experience strong structural fluctuations, similar to peptides in coupled folding-binding cluster formation processes. In contrast to a recently studied related proteinlike hydrophobic-polar heteropolymer model, aggregation and crystallization are separate processes for a homopolymer with the same small bending rigidity. Rather stiff semiflexible polymers form a liquid-crystal-like phase, as expected. In analogy to the heteropolymer study, we find that the first-order-like aggregation transition of the complexes is accompanied by strong system-size-dependent hierarchical surface effects. In consequence, the polymer aggregation is a phase-separation process with entropy reduction. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009
%K J (WoSType)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000270146400002
%R 10.1209/0295-5075/87/40002
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/5135