Polarizable polymer chain under external electric field: Effects of many-body electrostatic dipole correlations

摘要

We present a new simple self-consistent field theory of the polarizableflexible polymer chain under the external constant electric field with accountfor the many-body electrostatic dipole correlations. We show the effect ofelectrostatic dipole correlations on the electric field-induced globule-coiltransition. We demonstrate that only when the polymer chain is in the coilconformation, the electrostatic dipole correlations of monomers can beconsidered as pairwise. However, when the polymer chain is in collapsed state,the dipole correlations have to be considered at the many-body level.