Monte Carlo Simulation Study of Polymer Translocation Through Nano-channel

Abstract

In this study we have investigated the static and dynamic properties of linear polymer with different chain stiffness translocated through channel using Monte Carlo simulation. We used the bond fluctuation method (BFM) with metropolis algorithm to study the translocation process of a linear polymer chain of length N in two dimensions (square) lattice. To overcome entropic barrier, we placed the middle monomers in the middle of channels. We found that the scaling relation of mean square end-toend distance and mean square radius of gyration of flexible chain polymer as function of chain length N are in good agreement with Flory exponent for short channel length (L= 2 and 4 units). From our simulation, we also observed that the mean square endto- end distance, mean square radius of gyration and their ratio are increased with chain stiffness. In addition to these, our study result showed that both channel length and channel width affect the scaling behavior of escape time but chain stiffness does not. Moreover, the average escape time has direct relationships with both channel length and chain stiffness while it has inverse relationships with channel width