Extended de Gennes Regime of DNA Confined in a Nanochannel
Author(s)
Dai, Liang; van der Maarel, Johan; Doyle, Patrick S
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Scaling regimes for polymers confined to tubular channels are well established when the channel cross-sectional dimension is either very small (Odjik regime) or large (classic de Gennes regime) relative to the polymer Kuhn length. However, experiments of confined polymers using DNA as a model system are usually located in the intermediate region between these two regimes. In the literature, controversy exists regarding the existence of the extended de Gennes regime in this intermediate region. Here we use simulations and theory to reconcile conflicting theories and confirm the existence of extended de Gennes regime. We show that prior work did not support the notion of this regime because of the use of a wrong confinement free energy. In a broad sense, the extended de Gennes regime corresponds to the situation when excluded volume interaction is weaker than thermal energy. Such a situation also occurs in many other cases, such as semidilute polymer solutions and polymers under tension. This work should benefit the practical applications of nanochannels to stretch DNA, such as deepening the understanding of the relationship between the chain extension and channel size and providing the scaling behaviors of recoiling force for DNA at the entrance of nanochannels.
Date issued
2014-03Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical EngineeringJournal
Macromolecules
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Dai, Liang, Johan van der Maarel, and Patrick S. Doyle. “Extended de Gennes Regime of DNA Confined in a Nanochannel.” Macromolecules 47.7 (2014): 2445–2450.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0024-9297
1520-5835