Brownian motion of stiff filaments in a crowded environment |
| |
Authors: | Fakhri Nikta MacKintosh Frederick C Lounis Brahim Cognet Laurent Pasquali Matteo |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA. |
| |
Abstract: | The thermal motion of stiff filaments in a crowded environment is highly constrained and anisotropic; it underlies the behavior of such disparate systems as polymer materials, nanocomposites, and the cell cytoskeleton. Despite decades of theoretical study, the fundamental dynamics of such systems remains a mystery. Using near-infrared video microscopy, we studied the thermal diffusion of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) confined in porous agarose networks. We found that even a small bending flexibility of SWNTs strongly enhances their motion: The rotational diffusion constant is proportional to the filament-bending compliance and is independent of the network pore size. The interplay between crowding and thermal bending implies that the notion of a filament's stiffness depends on its confinement. Moreover, the mobility of SWNTs and other inclusions can be controlled by tailoring their stiffness. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|