Adsorption-induced polymer translocation through a nanopore: a Monte Carlo investigation Original Research Article

We study the translocation of a coarse-grained flexible polymer through a nanopore in a membrane induced by its adsorption on the trans side of the membrane. Dramatic differences in the threading behavior are observed if the adhesion to the membrane wall, image, is below or above the adsorption threshold image. For image (weak adsorption) the activation barrier for translocation is at image (in terms of the fraction of chain image before the pore), independent of chain length N. For image this barrier is at a constant (vanishing) number of passed trans monomers for all N. The mean time of chain passage image when image. It scales with chain length as image for image, and as image beyond the threshold image.