Capillary-driven thinning of DNA solutions

Abstract

Capillary thinning of polymeric fluids is central to biological and industrial processes, yet the mechanisms governing thinning dynamics remain unresolved, especially for semi-flexible polymers. Using ideal solutions of semi-flexible DNA, we validate a phenomenological model for exponential capillary thinning that accounts for each polymer in the molecular weight distribution. For semi-flexible polymers, self-selection of the exponential time constant occurs by a fundamentally different mechanism than for highly flexible systems, and is not simply governed by the longest polymers in the molecular weight distribution.