Excluded volume effect on confined polymer translocation through a short nanochannel

Abstract

We simulated the translocation process of a polymer chain from a source container to a drain container through a short nanochannel. We utilized the bond fluctuation model coupled with Monte Carlo dynamics in our simulations. The calculation results show that the excluded volume effect significantly affects the polymer's translocation time tau. This time depends nonmonotonically on the polymer length N. For a fixed nanochannel length, tau decreases when the polymer length increases. tau, however, increases when the polymer length exceeds a certain threshold. This observation differs from those predicated for a Gaussian chain. In this paper, we will further present our findings to explain this phenomenon. The knowledge we gain from this research can enhance the understanding of complex transport processes in many biological systems.