Selective homopolymer adsorption on structured surfaces as a model for pattern recognition

Homopolymer adsorption onto chemically structured periodic surfaces and its potential for pattern recognition is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. To analyze the surface-induced selective adsorption on a fundamental geometric level polymer chains are represented by freely jointed chains with a fixed bond length whose monomers are attracted by the sites of regular lattice patterns. The structural properties of the adsorbed low-temperature state are comprehensively discussed for different lattices by looking at the radius of gyration and the inter bond angle distributions. These observables show a non-trivial dependence on the commensurability of characteristic lengths given by the lattice constant and by the bond length. Reasons for this behavior are given by exploiting geometric and entropic arguments. The findings are examined in the context of pattern recognition by polymer adsorption. Furthermore, the adsorption transition is discussed briefly. For certain incommensurable situations the adsorption occurs in two steps due to entropic restrictions. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4773470]