Translocation of polymer chain in post array induced by arrangement differ

Abstract

We demonstrate that the arrangement differs of posts have significant effect on the translocation of polymer chains which are embedded in the post arrays by using Monte Carlo algorithm. Due to the equivalent entropic force, polymers have a tendency to translocate to the disordered-arranged post array side other than the ordered-arranged side even though the post densities are equal on both sides. By changing the diameter of the posts, we find that the associated translocation times are strongly affected by the structure of the post array. Since the entropic force is almost identical for each monomer of the polymer chain and the free energy difference between two differently-arranged sides increases linearly with the polymer chain length, the directional preference strongly depends on the polymer chain length, and the ratio between the probabilities for a polymer to move either side obeys the Boltzmann distribution. Hence, a new microfabricated device which is used to separate deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) by molecular weight can be designed using this idea. Moreover, this study can help us to develop a better understanding on the passages of polymers across membranes in nature.