Polymer Knots in Thin Films: Thickness Dependence, Local Effects, and Stiffness
Abstract
We study how confinement affects topology and conformations in polymer films of varying thickness h. The knotting probability exhibits a maximum at intermediate thicknesses near the bulk radius of gyration h ≈ Rg,bulk, vanishes at small h and approaches bulk values for large h. Close to walls, the entanglement length increases monotonically and conformations become flatter. A layer-resolved analysis of structural and topological properties allows us to reconstruct the explicit thickness dependencies by integrating layer-resolved properties of a thick film.
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