Drying Induced Hydrophobic Polymer Collapse

Pieter Rein ten Wolde; David Chandler

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arXiv · cond-mat/0207126

Drying Induced Hydrophobic Polymer Collapse

Pieter Rein ten Wolde·David Chandler

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Abstract

We have used computer simulation to study the collapse of a hydrophobic chain in water. We find that the mechanism of collapse is much like that of a first order phase transition. The evaporation of water in the vicinity of the polymer provides the driving force for collapse, and the rate limiting step is the nucleation of a sufficiently large vapor bubble. The study is made possible through the application of transition path sampling and a coarse grained treatment of liquid water. Relevance of our findings to understanding the folding and assembly of proteins is discussed.

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Pieter Rein ten Wolde, David Chandler. 2002-07-04. Drying Induced Hydrophobic Polymer Collapse. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0207126

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