Drying Induced Hydrophobic Polymer Collapse

Preprint

4 July 2002

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.cond-mat/0207126

Abstract

We have used computer simulation to study the collapse of a hydrophobic chain in water. We find that the mechanism of collapse is much like that of a first order phase transition. The evaporation of water in the vicinity of the polymer provides the driving force for collapse, and the rate limiting step is the nucleation of a sufficiently large vapor bubble. The study is made possible through the application of transition path sampling and a coarse grained treatment of liquid water. Relevance of our findings to understanding the folding and assembly of proteins is discussed.

Keywords

MECHANISM OF COLLAPSE
INDUCED HYDROPHOBIC
COMPUTER SIMULATION
HYDROPHOBIC POLYMER
POLYMER COLLAPSE
PHASE TRANSITION
DRYING INDUCED
EVAPORATION

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Version 1, 2002-07-04, ArXiv

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