Effect of polymer rigidity on the phase behaviour of polymer adsorption on to planar surface

Abstract

We study the process of a semiflexible polymer chain adsorption on to planar surface by the dynamic Monte Carlo (DMC) method, based on the 3D off-lattice model. Both the strength of attractive monomer–surface interaction (εa) and bending energy (b) have pronounced effect on the adsorption and shape of semiflexible polymer chain. The semiflexible polymer can just fully adsorb on to the surface at certain εa, which is defined as critical εa. The essential features of the semiflexible polymer adsorption on to surface are that (i) the critical εa increases with increase in b; (ii) the shape of the fully adsorbed semiflexible polymer chain is film-like toroid, and the toroid becomes more and more perfect with increase in b. In addition, the size of toroid and the number of turns of toroid can be controlled by the b and εa.