2006/12/19 by Nicholas A. Licata, Licata, Nicholas A., Alexei V. Tkachenko +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #Material Dynamics and Properties #Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0612474
4 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2006/12/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The dynamics of particles interacting by key-lock binding of attached biomolecules are studied theoretically. Examples of such systems include DNA-functionalized colloids as well as nanoparticles grafted with antibodies to cell membrane proteins. Depending on the coverage of the functional groups, we predict two distinct regimes separated by a percolation transition. In the localized regime at low coverage, the system exhibits a broad, power law like distribution of particle departure times. At higher coverage, there is an interplay between departure dynamics and particle diffusion. This interplay leads to a sharp increase of the departure times, a phenomenon qualitatively similar to aging in glassy systems. This diffusive regime is analogous to dispersive transport in disordered semiconductors: depending on the interaction parameters, the diffusion behavior ranges from standard diffusion to anomalous, subdiffusive behavior. The connection to recent experiments and implications for future studies are discussed.