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Conformational Polymer Statistics from the Geometrical Scaling of Monomeric Units and the Characteristic Ratio from Circle Maps. Application to Carbohydrate Macromolecules
Author(s) -
Mezzasalma Stefano A.,
Angioletti Carmela,
Cesàro Attilio
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/mats.200350035
Subject(s) - dihedral angle , scaling , energy landscape , radius of gyration , persistence length , chain (unit) , physics , brownian motion , macromolecule , polymer , molecule , chemistry , geometry , statistical physics , classical mechanics , molecular physics , mathematics , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , nuclear magnetic resonance , biochemistry , hydrogen bond
Summary: Basic results on conformational chain statistics were formerly derived from scaling concepts for geometry and a relativistic picture of Brownian self‐diffusion in liquids. A polymer conformation was interpreted as a geometrical scaling law of its monomer shape, where the concept of characteristic ratio identifies a mean metric coefficient, originating topologically from rotational degrees of freedom internal to single molecules. Here, we add the former theoretical results to first numerical calculations. They are performed for three polysaccharides, provided with different chain topologies and constrained conformationally to identical square‐well energy states with increasing width. The spatial coil dilation‐contraction has been described satisfactorily by dihedral sine‐like rotations on a circle at dimeric length scales. New intrinsic quantities, like inner characteristic ratio and angular Kuhn step, both belonging to the shape of single molecules, have been finally defined. The geometrical mechanism bringing them at larger scales, to point out the chain shape size, is still unknown and under consideration.Conformational energy landscape of nigerose.