Polarizable polymer chain under external electric field: Effects of many-body electrostatic dipole correlations

Abstract

We present a new simple self-consistent field theory of the polarizable flexible polymer chain under the external constant electric field with account for the many-body electrostatic dipole correlations. We show the effect of electrostatic dipole correlations on the electric field-induced globule-coil transition. We demonstrate that only when the polymer chain is in the coil conformation, the electrostatic dipole correlations of monomers can be considered as pairwise. However, when the polymer chain is in collapsed state, the dipole correlations have to be considered at the many-body level.