Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Polyacrylamide In Glycerol Solutions From An Atomistic Perspective Of The Energetics, Structure, And Dynamics, Scott D. Hopkins, Gideon K. Gogovi, Eric Weisel, Robert A. Handler, Estela Blaisten-Barojas

VMASC Publications

All-atom molecular dynamics is used to investigate the structural, energetic, and dynamical properties of polyacrylamide (PAM) oligomers of different lengths solvated in pure glycerol, a 90:10 glycerol–water mixture, and pure water. We predict that the oligomers’ globular structure is obtained only when the modeling strategy considers the solvent as a continuous background. Meanwhile, for all-atom modeled solvents, the glycerol solutions display a strong tendency of trapping the oligomers in instantaneous elongated random coiled structures that remain locked-in over tens of nanoseconds. In pure water, the oligomers acquire considerably shorter random coiled structures of increased flexibility. The all-atom force field, generalized …