Work

Non-equilibrium structural and dynamic behaviors of active polymers in complex and crowded environments

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Active matter systems, which convert internal chemical energy or energy from the environment into directed motion, are ubiquitous in nature and exhibit a range of emerging non-equilibrium behaviors. However, most of the current works on active matter have been devoted to particles, and the study of active polymers has only recently come into the spotlight due to their prevalence within living organisms. The intricate interplay between activity and conformational degrees of freedom gives rise to novel structural and dynamical behaviors of active polymers. Research in active polymers remarkably broadens diverse concepts of polymer physics, such as molecular architecture, dynamics, scaling and so on, which is of significant importance for the development of new polymer materials with unique performance. Furthermore, active polymers are often found in strongly interacting and crowded systems and in complex environments, so that the understanding of this behavior is essential for future developments of novel polymer-based biomaterials. This review thereby focuses on the study of active polymers in complex and crowded environments, and aims to provide insights into the fundamental physics underlying the adaptive and collective behaviors far from equilibrium, as well as the open challenges that the field is currently facing.

Source: Reports on Progress in Physics

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6633/ad3e11

Authors: Guolong Zhu, Lijuan Gao, Yihang Sun, Wenjie Wei, Li-Tang Yan

Institutions: Hunan University, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University

Language: English

Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,455

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China