Flexibility transitions and looped adsorption of wormlike chains

When deposited from a solution onto a surface, superpolymeric chains display revealing transitions in their apparent stiffness. With simulated chains in adsorption, we varied the backbone rigidity and measured the chain persistence length (lPads). As the three‐dimensional persistence length (lP3) increases toward the contour length, a transition can be seen from lPads = lP2 (i.e., the two‐dimensional persistence length) to lPads = lP3. Looped conformations decrease in frequency with a distinct nonlinear dependence. Finally, comparisons with experiments on polymeric worm micelles and purified neurofilaments demonstrate a simple new method for assessing the flexibility of these novel superpolymers.