Properties of Confined Polymer Melts

Properties of simple models of confined linear polymer chains were studied by means of the Monte Carlo method. Model chains were built of united atoms (statistical segments) and embedded to a simple cubic lattice. Then polymers were put into a slit formed by two parallel impenetrable surfaces. Chain lengths were varied up to 800 segments and the density of the polymer melt was changed up to 0.5. A Metropolis-like sampling Monte Carlo algorithm was used to determine the static properties of this model. The influence of the size of the confinement, the polymer melt concentration and the chain length on the chain's size and the structure was studied. The universal behavior of all confined polymer linear chains under consideration was found and discussed.