Polymers grown in cavities: Vesicles and droplets

Abstract

In synthetic chemistry and biological or biomimetic systems, polymers are often grown in cavities. Polymerizations in microemulsions, biopolymers grown in cells, or in vesicles containing artificial organelles have an influence on the shape of liquid boundaries. We consider confined grand-canonical polymers to address equilibrium properties of annealed polymers. We calculate the concentration profiles established by annealed (star-) polymers inside a confining cavity. Our emphasis is on the description of pressure fields derived from the contact theorem. We further show how the pressure field exerted by a localized annealed polymer (or pair of polymers) deforms the confining vesicle/microemulsions droplet.