Structure formation at hybrid interfaces of soft and solid matter

The requirement of higher integration scales in electronic circuits, the design of nanosensory applications in biomedicine, and also the fascinating capabilities of modern experimental setup with its enormous potential in polymer and surface research, have produced an increased interest in macromolecular structural behavior at hybrid interfaces of organic and inorganic matter [273–278]. Relevant processes include, e.g., wetting [279–281], pattern recognition [282–284], protein–ligand binding and docking [285–287], effects specific to polyelectrolytes at charged substrates [288] as well as electrophoretic polymer deposition and growth at surfaces [289].

The recent developments of experimental single-molecule techniques at the nanometer scale, e.g., by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) [290, 291] and optical tweezers [292, 293], allow for a more detailed exploration of structural properties of polymers in the vicinity of adsorbing substrates [278]. The possibility to perform such studies is of essential biological and technological significance. From the biological point of view, the understanding of the binding and docking mechanisms of proteins at cell membranes is important for the reconstruction of biological cell processes. Similarly, specificity of peptides and binding affinity to selected substrates are relevant features that need to be taken into account for potential applications in nanoelectronics and pattern recognition nanosensory devices on a molecular basis [282].

In this chapter, theoretical approaches to the modeling of hybrid systems of soft and solid matter will be discussed. A comprehensive analysis of conformational transitions experienced by polymers in the binding process, of the phase-diagram structure, and of dominant polymer conformations in these phases can only be performed efficiently by means of computer simulations of hybrid physisorption models on mesoscopic scales.