A GREENS-FUNCTION PERTURBATION-THEORY FOR NONUNIFORM SEMIFLEXIBLE POLYMERS - PHASES AND THEIR TRANSITIONS NEAR ATTRACTING SURFACES

The chain stiffness is an important characteristic that affects the pr operties of many biological and synthetic polymers. We develop a pertu rbation theory in the framework of a Green's-function approach to trea t the chain stiffness effects systematically. This scheme incorporates the standard flexible-chain Edwards equation in the zeroth order. Whe n applied to the chains on the surface, the theory predicts novel feat ures in adsorption-desorption transitions coupled with types of isotro pic to nematic ordering transitions, giving a rigorous quantitative ba sis for our previous scaling theory results. We analyze the phase diag rams, and various quantities that detail the chain distribution includ ing orientation-order-parameter distribution of the adsorbed semiflexi ble polymers. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.