Conformational properties of strictly two-dimensional equilibrium polymers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wittmer, J. P., Cavallo, A., Johner, A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wittmer, J. P.
Cavallo, A.
Johner, A.
author_facet Wittmer, J. P.
Cavallo, A.
Johner, A.
contents Two-dimensional monodisperse linear polymer chains are known to adopt for sufficiently large chain lengths $N$ and surface fractions $ϕ$ compact configurations with fractal perimeters. We show here by means of Monte Carlo simulations of reversibly connected hard disks (without branching, ring formation and chain intersection) that polydisperse self-assembled equilibrium polymers with a finite scission energy $E$ are characterized by the same universal exponents as their monodisperse peers. Consistently with a Flory-Huggins mean-field approximation, the polydispersity is characterized by a Schulz-Zimm distribution with a susceptibility exponent $γ=19/16$ for all not dilute systems and the average chain length $<N> \propto \exp(δE) ϕ^α$ thus increases with an exponent $δ= 16/35$. Moreover, it is shown that $α=3/5$ for semidilute solutions and $α\approx 1$ for larger densities. The intermolecular form factor $F(q)$ reveals for sufficiently large $<N>$ a generalized Porod scattering with $F(q) \propto 1/q^{11/4}$ for intermediate wavenumbers $q$ consistently with a fractal perimeter dimension $d_s=5/4$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00649
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Conformational properties of strictly two-dimensional equilibrium polymers
Wittmer, J. P.
Cavallo, A.
Johner, A.
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Two-dimensional monodisperse linear polymer chains are known to adopt for sufficiently large chain lengths $N$ and surface fractions $ϕ$ compact configurations with fractal perimeters. We show here by means of Monte Carlo simulations of reversibly connected hard disks (without branching, ring formation and chain intersection) that polydisperse self-assembled equilibrium polymers with a finite scission energy $E$ are characterized by the same universal exponents as their monodisperse peers. Consistently with a Flory-Huggins mean-field approximation, the polydispersity is characterized by a Schulz-Zimm distribution with a susceptibility exponent $γ=19/16$ for all not dilute systems and the average chain length $<N> \propto \exp(δE) ϕ^α$ thus increases with an exponent $δ= 16/35$. Moreover, it is shown that $α=3/5$ for semidilute solutions and $α\approx 1$ for larger densities. The intermolecular form factor $F(q)$ reveals for sufficiently large $<N>$ a generalized Porod scattering with $F(q) \propto 1/q^{11/4}$ for intermediate wavenumbers $q$ consistently with a fractal perimeter dimension $d_s=5/4$.
title Conformational properties of strictly two-dimensional equilibrium polymers
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00649