Driven polymer transport through a periodically patterned channel

We study the driven transport of polymers in a periodically patterned channel using Langevin dynamics simulations in two dimensions. The channel walls are patterned with periodically alternating patches of attractive and non-attractive particles that act as trapping sites for the polymer. We find that the system shows rich dynamical behavior, observing giant diffusion, negative differential mobility, and several different transition mechanisms between the attractive patches. We also show that the channel can act as an efficient high-pass filter for polymers longer than a threshold length N thr, which can be tuned by adjusting the length of the attractive patches and the driving force. Our findings suggest the possibility of fabricating polymer filtration devices based on patterned nanochannels