Dependence of the Critical Adsorption Point on Surface and Sequence Disorders for Self-Avoiding Walks Interacting with a Planar Surface

TL;DR

This paper investigates how surface and sequence disorders affect the critical adsorption point of self-avoiding walks interacting with a planar surface, combining theoretical equations with Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It introduces theoretical models describing the dependence of CAP on disorders and validates them with simulation data, highlighting where the models break down.

Findings

Theoretical equations agree with simulations when approximations hold.

Simulations show deviations from theory when assumptions break down.

First step toward understanding disorder correlation in polymer adsorption.

Abstract

The critical adsorption point (CAP) of self-avoiding walks (SAW) interacting with a planar surface with surface disorder or sequence disorder has been studied. We present theoretical equations, based on ones previously developed by Soteros and Whittington (J. Phys. A.: Math. Gen. 2004, 37, R279-R325), that describe the dependence of CAP on the disorders along with Monte Carlo simulation data that are in agreement with the equations. We also show simulation results that deviate from the equations when the approximations used in the theory break down. Such knowledge is the first step toward understanding the correlation of surface disorder and sequence disorder during polymer adsorption.