Molecular conformations of dumbbell-shaped polymers in good solvent

Abstract

We study conformational properties of diluted dumbbell polymers which consist of two rings that are attached to both ends of a linear spacer segment by using analytical methods of field theory and bead-spring coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. We investigate the influence of the relative length of the spacer segment to the length of side rings on the shape and the relative size of dumbbells as compared to linear polymers of equal mass. We find that dumbbells with short spacers are much more compact than linear polymers. Oppositely, we observe that the influence of side rings on the size of dumbbells becomes negligible with increasing length of a spacer. Consequently dumbbell molecules with long spacers become comparable in size with corresponding linear chains. Our analytical theory predicts quantitative cross-over between short- and long-spacer behavior and is confirmed by numerical simulations.