Molecular recognition by van der Waals interaction between polymers with sequence-specific polarizabilities

Bing Sui Lu, Ali Naji, Rudolf Podgornik

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We analyze van der Waals interactions between two rigid polymers with sequence-specific, anisotropic polarizabilities along the polymer backbones, so that the dipole moments fluctuate parallel to the polymer backbones. Assuming that each polymer has a quenched-in polarizability sequence which reflects, for example, the polynucleotide sequence of a double-stranded DNA molecule, we study the van der Waals interaction energy between a pair of such polymers with rod-like structure for the cases where their respective polarizability sequences are (i) distinct and (ii) identical, with both zero and non-zero correlation length of the polarizability correlator along the polymer backbones in the latter case. For identical polymers, we find a novel r-5 scaling behavior of the van der Waals interaction energy for small inter-polymer separation r, in contradistinction to the r-4 scaling behavior of distinct polymers, with furthermore a pronounced angular dependence favoring attraction between sufficiently aligned identical polymers. Such behavior can assist the molecular recognition between polymers.

Original languageEnglish
Article number214904
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume142
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jun 2015
Externally publishedYes

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