Density functional theory of equilibrium random copolymers: application to surface adsorption of aggregating peptides

Abstract

We generalize a recently developed polymer density functional theory (PDFT) for polydisperse polymer fluids to the case of equilibrium random copolymers. We show that the generalization of the PDFT to these systems allows us to obtain a remarkable simplification compared to the monodispersed polymers. The theory is used to treat a model for protein aggregation into linear filaments in the presence of surfaces. Here we show that, for attractive surfaces, there is evidence of significant enhancement of protein aggregation. This behaviour is a consequence of a surface phase transition, which has been shown to occur with ideal equilibrium polymers in the presence of sufficiently attractive surfaces. For excluding monomers, this transition is suppressed, though an echo of the underlying ideal transition is present in the sudden change in the excess adsorption.