No abstract

Folding and unfolding of biopolymers are often manipulated in experiment by tuning pH, temperature, single-molecule force or shear field. Here we carry out Brownian dynamics simulations to explore the behavior of a single self-attracting chain in the suspension of self-propelling particles (SPPs). As the propelling force increases, globule-stretch (G-S) transition of the chain happens due to the enhanced disturbance from SPPs. Two distinct mechanisms of the transition in the limits of low and high rotational diffusion rates of SPPs have been observed: shear effect at low rate and collision-induced melting at high rate. The G-S and S-G (stretch-globule) curves form hysteresis loop at low rate, while they merge at high rate. Besides, we find two competing effects result in the non-monotonic dependence of the G-S transition on the SPP density at low rate. Our results suggest an alternative approach to manipulating the folding and unfolding of (bio)polymers by utilizing active agents.arXiv:1805.12292v1 [cond-mat.soft]

Computer simulations were performed to study the dense mixtures of passive particles and active particles in two dimensions. Two systems with different kinds of passive particles (e.g., spherical particles and rod-like particles) were considered. At small active forces, the high-density and low-density regions emerge in both systems, indicating a phase separation. At higher active forces, the systems return to a homogeneous state with large fluctuation of particle area in contrast with the thermo-equilibrium state. Structurally, the rod-like particles accumulate loosely due to the shape anisotropy compared with the spherical particles at the high-density region. Moreover, there exists a positive correlation between Voronoi area and velocity of the particles. Additionally, a small number of active particles capably give rise to super-diffusion of passive particles in both systems when the self-propelled force is turned on.

We study the structural and dynamical behaviors of a diblock copolymer chain in a bath of active Brownian particles(ABPs) by extensive Brownian dynamics simulation in a two-dimensional model system.Specifically, the A block of chain is self-attractive, while the B block is self-repulsive. We find, beyond a threshold, the A block unfolds with a pattern like extracting a woolen string from a ball. The critical force decreases with the increase of the B block length (NB) for short cases, then keeps a constant with further increase of NB. In addition, we find a power law exists between the unfolding time, , of chain and active force, , as well as NB with the relation ∝ −1.1 −1.34 . Finally, we focus on the translational and rotational diffusion of chain, and find that both of them remain supper-diffusive at the long-time limit for small active forces due to an asymmetry distribution of ABPs. Our results open new routes for manipulating polymer's behaviors with ABPs.

We study the interplay between active Brownian particles (ABPs) and a "hairy" surface in two-dimensional geometry. We find that the increase of propelling force leads to and enhances inhomogeneous accumulation of ABPs inside the brush region. Oscillation of chain bundles (beating like cilia) is found in company with the formation and disassembly of a dynamic cluster of ABPs at large propelling forces. Meanwhile chains are stretched and pushed down due to the effective shear force by ABPs. The decrease of the average brush thickness with propelling force reflects the growth of the beating amplitude of chain bundles. Furthermore, the beating phenomenon is investigated in a simple single-chain system. We find that the chain swings regularly with a major oscillatory period, which increases with chain length and decreases with the increase of propelling force. We build a theory to describe the phenomenon and the predictions on the relationship between the period and amplitude for various chain lengths, and propelling forces agree very well with simulation data.