Helix-like structure formation of a semi-flexible chain confined in a cylinder channel

XH Wen and TY Sun and WB Zhang and CH Lam and LX Zhang and HP Zang, CHINESE PHYSICS B, 25, 093601 (2016).

DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/25/9/093601

Molecular dynamics method is used to study the conformation behavior of a semi-flexible polymer chain confined in a cylinder channel. A novel helix-like structure is found to form during the simulation. Moreover, the detailed characteristic parameters and formation probability of these helix-like structures under moderate conditions are investigated. We find that the structure is not a perfect helix, but a bundle of elliptical turns. In addition, we conduct a statistical analysis for the chain monomer distribution along the radial direction. This research contributes to our understanding of the microscopic conformation of polymer chains in confined environments filled with a solvent.

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