We study the dynamics of collapse of a polysoap by means of large-scale molecular dynamics simulation and scaling arguments. A polysoap consists of a hydrophilic backbone and hydrophobic side chains attached at regular intervals along the backbone. In selective solvent conditions, the hydrophobic components aggregate, forcing the hydrophilic backbone to form loops anchored at the surface of the core, ultimately forming a micelle. The kinetics of polysoap collapse includes two major mechanisms: (1) early aggregation of the hydrophobic side chains controlled by first-order kinetics whose rate constant is given by a contact probability and (2) coalescence into larger clusters which requires activation to overcome energy barriers due to excluded volume repulsions between intermediate micelle coronas. In the late stage, the energy barrier is increasing as with the number of aggregated side chains in an intermediate micelle. The corresponding late-stage rate constant decays exponentially as
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15 October 2004
Research Article|
October 01 2004
Kinetics of a polysoap collapse
Nam-Kyung Lee;
Nam-Kyung Lee
Department of Physics, Institute of Fundamental Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea;
Institut Charles Sadron, 67083 Strasbourg Cedex, France
and Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany
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Cameron F. Abrams
Cameron F. Abrams
Department of Chemical Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
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J. Chem. Phys. 121, 7484–7493 (2004)
Article history
Received:
June 21 2004
Accepted:
July 22 2004
Citation
Nam-Kyung Lee, Cameron F. Abrams; Kinetics of a polysoap collapse. J. Chem. Phys. 15 October 2004; 121 (15): 7484–7493. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1793151
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