Scaling in force spectroscopy of macromolecules

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2005 Jul;72(1 Pt 1):011918. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.72.011918. Epub 2005 Jul 28.

Abstract

We use molecular dynamics to determine the force needed to rupture a chain molecule being stretched at constant loading rate and temperature. When all energy bonds of the molecule are identical, we find that the force F depends on the pulling rate r and temperature T according to F approximately const- T(1/3)|ln (r/T)|(1/3). When a single weak bond is introduced, this result is modified to F approximately const - T(2/3|ln (r/T)(2/3)|. This scaling, which is model independent, can be used with experiment to quantitatively extract relevant microscopic parameters.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biophysics / methods
  • Computer Simulation
  • Humans
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force / methods*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Spectrophotometry / methods*
  • Stochastic Processes
  • Temperature
  • Thermodynamics