Dynamics of Branched Polymers in Random Layered Flows with Intramolecular Hydrodynamic Coupling: Star and Dendrimer

Abstract

The authors develop a theoretical formalism to incorporate the effect of intramolecular hydrodynamic interactions (HIs) on the dynamics of flexible branched polymer in the presence of random layered flows. The influence of HIs on the anomalous diffusive behavior of branched polymers is illustrated through the preaveraged Oseen tensor approach. Although the formalism is valid for polymer structures with arbitrary topology, particular attention is paid here to the study of stars and dendrimers. The macromolecular property that is evaluated is the average square displacement (ASD) of drift center of the polymer. Qualitatively, our analysis highlights two anomalous power‐law regimes, viz. subdiffusive (intermediate‐time polymer stretching and flow induced diffusion) and superdiffusive (long‐time flow induced diffusion). The time dependence of the ASD in the presence of HIs within the preaveraging approximation reveals the anomalous long‐time dynamics which is governed by scaling behavior, t2 − α/2. The introduction of HIs in random flows speeds up the dynamics resulting in the shorter crossover time (from subdiffusive to superdiffusive regime) with enhanced magnitude of ASD compared to the free‐draining limit. image