Publications Details

Potentials of Mean Force Between Rigid Solvated Polymers

Frink, Laura J.; Salinger, Andrew G.

In this letter we discusses the first application of 3-dimensional nonlocal density functional calculations to the interactions of solvated rigid polymers. The three cases considered are cylindrical polymers, bead-chain polymers, and periodic polymers. We calculate potentials of mean force, and show that polymer surface structure plays a critical role in determining the solvation energy landscape which in turn controls routes to assembly of the macromolecules.