(168o) Bending Dynamics of Semiflexible Colloidal Chains

Colloidal particles and assemblies are useful models for analogous atomic and molecular systems. In this poster, we present a colloidal worm-like chain (WLC) model system using DNA-linked colloidal particle chains as an analogue to semiflexible linear polymers. We measure their bending rigidity, or persistence length, by monitoring the thermal fluctuations of the chains. We show that the persistence lengths of the chains can be tuned from 1 to 50 mm (L/LP = 0.002 - 0.1), by changing the length of the DNA used to link adjacent particles from 75 to 15 bases. We also studied study the bending relaxation dynamics of these chains, which match well with theoretical predictions, further supporting the validity of using these colloidal chains as models for semiflexible polymer systems in both equilibrium and dynamic studies.