POLYMERS INTERACTING WITH SPHERICAL AND RODLIKE PARTICLES

The interaction of a long flexible polymer chain with mesoscopic parti cles of spherical or elongated cylindrical shape is investigated by fi eld-theoretic methods using the polymer-magnet analogy. In the case th at these particles are immersed in a dilute polymer solution and exhib it purely repulsive surfaces we study density profiles for monomers an d chain ends near such a particle, the change of configurational entro py by immersing a particle into the solution, and the depletion intera ction between a particle and a distant planar wall. Both ideal chains and chains with an excluded-volume interaction are considered. We also analyze particle surfaces with a short-ranged attraction and the adso rption-desorption transition for an ideal polymer chain. Properties su ch as the number of surface contacts are evaluated both in the adsorbe d limit, in which the thickness of the adsorbed layer is much smaller than the unperturbed polymer size so that ground-state dominance appli es, and at the adsorption threshold.