Anomalous critical slowdown at a first order phase transition in single polymer chains

S Zhang, S Qi, LI Klushin, AM Skvortsov… - The Journal of …, 2017 - pubs.aip.org
Using Brownian dynamics, we study the dynamical behavior of a polymer grafted onto an
adhesive surface close to the mechanically induced adsorption-stretching transition. Even
though the transition is first order (in the infinite chain length limit, the stretching degree of
the chain jumps discontinuously), the characteristic relaxation time is found to grow
according to a power law as the transition point is approached. We present a dynamic
effective interface model which reproduces these observations and provides an excellent …