Motion of star-branched vs linear polymer: A Monte Carlo study

Monte Carlo simulations of lattice model of branched polymer chains were performed. The object of this simulation was a uniform star-branched polymer of equal length which was confined to a simple cubic lattice and consisted of f=3 arms of equal length. An efficient dynamic Monte Carlo algorithm was used to study the motion of a single athermal chain. Simulations were performed for star-branched chains with and without the excluded volume and for linear polymers in the same range of molecular weights. The maximum total chain length was 800 beads in both cases. The detailed comparison of static and dynamic properties of star-branched and linear polymers was made via the analysis of some new correlation functions as well as widely used parameters. The differences in the motion of star-branched and linear chains were described and discussed. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.