Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mathematical Sciences (MS)
College, School or Department Name
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Advisor
Iosif Pinelis
Abstract
For human beings, the origin of life has always been an interesting and mysterious matter, particularly how life arose from inorganic matter through natural processes. Polymerization is always involved in such processes. In this paper we built what we refer to as ideal and physical models to simulate spontaneous polymerization based on certain physical principles. As the modeling confirms, without taking external energy, small and simple inorganic molecules formed bigger and more complicated molecules, which are necessary ingredients of all living organisms. In our simulations, we utilized actual ranges of parameters according to their experimentally observed values. The results from the simulations led to a good agreement with the nature of polymerization. After sorting out through all the models that were built, we arrived at a final model that, it is hoped, can be used to simply and efficiently describe spontaneous polymerization using only three parameters: the dipole moment, the distance between molecules, and the temperature.
Recommended Citation
Zhao, Zhitong, "Modeling spontaneous three-dimensional polymerization", Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2012.