Translational and rotational coupling in Brownian rods near a solid surface

Abstract

An anisotropic macromolecule confined between two surfaces displays Brownian motion predominantly in the plane parallel to these surfaces. It can be expected that both the rotational and translational diffusion coefficients are strongly affected by hydrodynamic interactions with the walls. This work studies the more extreme case in which a rodlike particle comes into contact with a wall or in very close proximity (order of 100 nm). Experimental data have been gathered and analyzed demonstrating the rod tethering on a surface. This is compared with numerical simulations to allow estimates of proximity to the surface. The experimental data show that particle tethered motion is subject to varied degrees of constraining which imply subtle deviations in the Brownian dynamical behavior. The key finding is that a rotational-translational coupling occurs which is markedly different from the translational and rotational movements normally predicted for anisotropic macromolecules.