Probing the local structure: macromolecular combs in external fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how comb-shaped macromolecules respond to local external fields, revealing that their inhomogeneous structure significantly influences their stretching behavior, with implications for experimental techniques like fluorescence measurements.

Contribution

It extends the Rouse model to analyze the local response of comb macromolecules, providing new insights into their structural dynamics under external fields.

Findings

Stretching depends on monomer position due to architecture

Theoretical and experimental implications for fluorescence techniques

Inhomogeneous structure influences macromolecular response

Abstract

Recent experimental methods allow to monitor the response of macromolecules to locally applied fields, complementing usual, mesoscopic techniques. Based on the Rouse-model and its extension to generalized Gaussian structures (GGS), we follow here the stretching of comb macromolecules under local fields. This leads to a wealth of informations about the structure: Namely, given the inhomogeneous architecture of combs, the dynamics and amount of stretching depend strongly on the position of the monomer on which the external fields act. We discuss both the theoretical and the experimental implications of our findings, given that micromanipulations can be supplemented by fluorescence measurements, which are very sensitive to changes in the intramolecular distances.