Stiffness and excluded volume effects on conformation and dynamics of polymers: A simulation study

This work investigates the effects of the excluded volume and especially those of the chain stiffness on the structural and dynamical properties of a model polymer chain. The theoretical framework is the same as in the recent works by Steinhauser et al., where a Rouse approach is adopted. Our model differs in that our chains have a finite average bending angle. As in the works by Steinhauser et al., Langevin dynamic simulations were performed without hydrodynamic interactions. Whereas this doesn’t impact the static properties we obtain, it also allows us to compare our results on dynamic properties to those predicted by Rouse theory, where hydrodynamic interactions are also neglected. Our results show that the structural properties are very sensitive to the chain stiffness, whereas the dynamic scaling laws remain the same as those by Rouse theory, with the prefactor depending on the persistence length.