MOTION OF STAR-BRANCHED VS LINEAR POLYMER - A MONTE-CARLO STUDY

Monte Carlo simulations of lattice model of branched polymer chains we re performed. The object of this simulation was a uniform star-branche d polymer of equal length which was confined to a simple cubic lattice and consisted of f=3 arms of equal length. An efficient dynamic Monte Carlo algorithm was used to study the motion of a single athermal cha in. Simulations were performed for star-branched chains with and witho ut the excluded volume and for linear polymers in the same range of mo lecular weights. The maximum total chain length was 800 beads in both cases. The detailed comparison of static and dynamic properties of sta r-branched and linear polymers was made via the analysis of some new c orrelation functions as well as widely used parameters. The difference s in the motion of star-branched and linear chains were described and discussed. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.