Smart Polymeric Recognition of a Hexagonal Monolayer

Abstract

We investigate the adsorption of a flexible polymer at a hexagonally patterned monolayer. All conformational polymer phases are identified, which enables the construction of a hyperphase diagram, parameterized by temperature and monolayer adsorption strength. The energy scale associated with the adsorption strength is a material parameter of the hybrid system that generically accommodates the behavior of entire classes of polymers interacting with hexagonal substrates. We also discuss a bridge-building mechanism for the formation of unique layered polymer structures with potential for applications in nanoscale transport. High-quality data sets necessary for the statistical analysis of the structural phase behavior of the system were obtained in extensive generalized-ensemble Monte Carlo computer simulations.