Lead Chief Investigator

David R Williams Applied Mathematics, RSPhysSE, Australian National University

Project Title

Collapse and Folding of Block Copolymers, Stretching of Copolymers in Poor Solvents

Brief Description for General Publications

Polymers are an excellent example of a physical system that has been exploited industrially and is also found in nature. Rather than studying the specific behaviour of particular polymers our aim is to find general properties. We use a course grained (bead and stick) model to represent a polymer and examine its behaviour under various solvent conditions. In particular our interest is in copolymers, where the chain is comprised of two different types of monomer. In this case some unusual and unexpected behaviour can occur depending on the properties of each of the monomer types. Since we work mostly with single polymers in dilute solution our results are of most relevance to biological systems such as DNA, actin, titin etc. The project will also undertake quantum chemical ab initio calculations of the dynamic polarisabilites of complex ions. These are crucial in understanding the role of nonelectrostatic van der Waals interactions between ions, and enable the development of the theory of ion-specific effects. Applications include predicting Hofmeister series, where the behaviour of protein molecules in salt solution depends on both the concentration and the specific type of salt used.