Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Sep 16;107(12):128301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.128301.
Using hydrodynamic simulations we examine the behavior of single polymers in a confined colloidal suspension under flow. We study the conformations of both, collapsed and noncollapsed polymers. Our results show that the presence of the colloids has a pronounced effect on the unfolding and refolding cycles of collapsed polymers, but does not have a large effect for noncollapsed polymers. Further inspection of the conformations reveals that the strong flow around the colloids and the direct physical compressions exerted on a globular polymer diffusing in between colloidal shear bands largely facilitate the initiation and unraveling of the globular chains. These results are important for rheological studies of (bio)polymer-(bio)colloid mixtures.
利用流体动力学模拟，我们研究了在流动条件下受限胶体悬浮液中单链聚合物的行为。我们研究了折叠和未折叠聚合物的构象。我们的结果表明，胶体的存在对折叠聚合物的展开和折叠循环有显著影响，但对未折叠聚合物的影响不大。进一步检查构象表明，胶体周围的强流以及在胶体剪切带之间扩散的球形聚合物所受到的直接物理压缩，极大地促进了球形链的起始和解开。这些结果对于（生物）聚合物-（生物）胶体混合物的流变学研究很重要。
