Monte Carlo simulation on polymer translocation in crowded environment

The effect of crowded environment with static obstacles on the translocation of a three-dimensional self-avoiding polymer through a small pore is studied using dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. The translocation time tau is dependent on polymer-obstacle interaction and obstacle concentration. The influence of obstacles on the polymer translocation is explained qualitatively by the free energy landscape. There exists a special polymer-obstacle interaction at which the translocation time is roughly independent of the obstacle concentration at low obstacle concentration, and the strength of the special interaction is roughly independent of chain length N. Scaling relation tau similar to N1.25 is observed for strong driving translocations. The diffusion property of polymer chain is also influenced by obstacles. Normal diffusion is only observed in dilute solution without obstacles or in a crowded environment with weak polymer-obstacle attraction. Otherwise, subdiffusion behavior of polymer is observed. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3658047]