Driven translocation of semiflexible polyelectrolyte through a nanopore

The influence of the chain stiffness on the translocation of semiflexible polyelectrolyte through a nanopore is investigated using Langevin dynamics simulations. Results show that the translocation time τ increases with the bending modulus k_θ because of the increase of viscous drag forces with k_θ. We find that the relation between τ and k_θ, the asymptotic behavior of τ on the polyelectrolyte length N, and the scaling relation between τ and the driving force f are dependent on k_θ and N. Our simulation results show that the semiflexible polyelectrolyte chain can be regarded as either a flexible polyelectrolyte at small k_θ or large N where its radius of gyration R_G is larger than the persistence length L_p or a stiff polyelectrolyte at large k_θ or short N where R_G < L_p. Results also show that the out‐of‐equilibrium effect during the translocation becomes weak with increasing k_θ. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 912–921