Abstract
The surface corrugation plays an important role in single polymer diffusion on attractive surfaces. However, its effect on dynamics of surface adsorption-induced polymer translocation through a nanopore is not clear. Using three-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the dynamics of a flexible polymer chain translocation through a nanopore induced by the selective adsorption of translocated segments onto the trans side of the membrane. The translocation probability increases monotonically, while the mean translocation time has a minimum as a function of the adsorption strength , which are explained from the perspective of the effective driving force for the translocation. With the surface being smoother, as well as the scaling exponent of with the chain length decreases. Finally, we show that the distributions of the translocation time are non-Gaussian even for strong adsorption at a moderate surface corrugation. A nearly Gaussian distribution of the translocation time is observed only for the smoothest surface we studied.
- Received 9 March 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.92.022603
©2015 American Physical Society