Simulations of Gaussian and Excluded-Volume Chains in Curved Slits

Abstract. We propose polymer models for Monte Carlo simulation and apply them to a polymer chain confined in a thin box which has both curved and flat sides, and show that either a Gaussian or an excluded-volume chain spends more time in the curved region than in the flat region. The ratio of the probability of finding a chain in the curved region and in flat region increases exponentially with increasing chain length up to a certain length defined by the size of box. Yaman et al. [1] showed that an ideal (Gaussian) poly-mer confined between cylindrical shells has a lower free energy than one confined between two flat surfaces. The difference is ∆F kT N l