atomic-force-microscopy-red-light-photoreceptors-using-peakforce

Atomic Force Microscopy of Red-Light Photoreceptors Using PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical Property Mapping

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) uses a pyramidal tip attached to a cantilever to probe the force response of a surface. The deflections of the tip can be ...

Northeastern Illinois University

We present a new approach for simulating the motions of flexible polyelectrolyte chains based on the continuous kink-jump Monte Carlo technique coupled to a lattice field theory based calculation of the Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) electrostatic free energy "on the fly." This approach is compared to the configurational-bias Monte Carlo technique, in which the chains are grown on a lattice and the PB equation is solved for each configuration with a linear scaling multigrid method to obtain the many-body free energy. The two approaches are used to calculate end-to-end distances of charged polymer chains in solutions with varying ionic strengths and give similar numerical results. The configurational-bias Monte Carlo/multigrid PB method is found to be more efficient, while the kink-jump Monte Carlo method shows potential utility for simulating nonequilibrium polyelectrolyte dynamics.

Flexible polyelectrolyte simulations at the Poisson-Boltzmann level: a comparison of the kink-jump and multigrid configurational-bias Monte Carlo methods.

A lattice field theory approach to the statistical mechanics of charged polymers in electrolyte solutions [S. Tsonchev, R. D. Coalson, and A. Duncan, Phys. Rev. E 60, 4257 (1999)] is applied to the study of a polymer chain contained in a spherical cavity but able to diffuse into a surrounding gel. The distribution of the polymer chain between the cavity and the gel is described by its partition coefficient, which is computed as a function of the number of monomers in the chain, the monomer charge, and the ion concentrations in the solution.

Partitioning of a polymer chain between a confining cavity and a gel.

We construct a phase diagram for self-assembling biologically active peptide amphiphiles. The structure and stability of the assemblies are studied as a function of pH and salinity of the solution. The general features of the phase diagram are predicted based on theoretical modeling of the self-assembly process, as well as experimental data, and further experiments are performed to verify and ascertain the boundary locations of the diagram. Depending on solution conditions, the amphiphiles can form cylindrical or spherical micelles, intermediate structures between these, or may not assemble at all. We also demonstrate that changing conditions may result in phase transitions among these structures. This type of phase diagram could be useful in the design of certain supramolecular nanostructures by providing information on the necessary conditions to form them.

Phase diagram for assembly of biologically-active peptide amphiphiles.

The assembly mechanism by which hundreds of thousands of two-segment gold-polypyrrole nanorods are assembled into kinetically controlled shape-directed superstructures is examined to predict the range of nanoparticle sizes and materials that can be utilized in their formation. Four processes are responsible for assembly: templating, capillary force assembly, adhesion, and polymer hydration. It is shown that templating, where rods are prepositioned for assembly, is scale invariant and that the energy-minimized state after this step is highly disordered. In addition, we predict that superstructures can be made independently from patterns of rods separated by a distance as small as six times the inter-rod spacing. Both modeling and experiment show that adhesion and polymer dehydration, which induces curvature in the superstructures, are applicable to other materials. However, the high surface energy and low elastic modulus of polypyrrole are advantageous toward generating three-dimensional structures, inducing curvature at gold/polypyrrole length ratios as large as 7:1.

Article	Year
Flexible polyelectrolyte simulations at the Poisson-Boltzmann level: a comparison of the kink-jump and multigrid configurational-bias Monte Carlo methods. The Journal of chemical physics\| PubMed ID: 15267998	2004
Partitioning of a polymer chain between a confining cavity and a gel. Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics\| PubMed ID: 17995016	2007
Phase diagram for assembly of biologically-active peptide amphiphiles. The journal of physical chemistry. B\| PubMed ID: 18088110	2008
Assembly of nanorods into designer superstructures: the role of templating, capillary forces, adhesion, and polymer hydration. ACS nano\| PubMed ID: 20041632	2010

Stefan Tsonchev

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