Related papers: Interfacial Instability of Charged End-Group Polym…
I study the average deformation rate of an amorphous material submitted to an external uniform shear strain rate, in the geometry known as the split-bottom configuration. The material is described using a stochastic model of plasticity at a…
A continuum-space bead-spring model is used to study the phase behavior of binary blends of homopolymers and the structure of the interface between the two immiscible phases. The structure of the interface is investigated as a function of…
The interaction between polymer brush and colloidal particles has been intensively studied in the last two decades. Here we consider a flat chain-grafted substrate immersed in a bath of active particles. Simulations show that an increase in…
A rectangular plate of dielectric elastomer exhibiting gradients of material properties through its thickness will deform inhomogeneously when a potential difference is applied to compliant electrodes on its major surfaces, because each…
Many charged polymers, including nucleic acids, are locally stiff. Their bending rigidity -- quantified by the persistence length --, depends crucially on Coulombic features, such as the ionic strength of the solution which offers a…
Charged colloidal monolayers at the interface between water and air (or oil) are used in a large number of chemical, physical and biological applications. Although a considerable experimental and theoretical effort has been devoted in the…
Using molecular dynamic simulation, we study the stretching of an adsorbed homopolymer in a poor solvent with one end held at a distance $z_e$ from the substrate. We measure the vertical force $f$ on the end of the chain as a function of…
Polymer brushes are attractive as surface coatings for a wide range of applications, from fundamental research to everyday life, and also play important roles in biological systems. How colloids (e.g., functional nanoparticles, proteins,…
The number of configurations of a polymer is reduced in the presence of a barrier or an obstacle. The resulting loss of entropy adds a repulsive component to other forces generated by interaction potentials. When the obstructions are scale…
The properties of the interface in a phase-separated solution of polymers with different degrees of polymerization and Kuhn segment lengths are calculated. The starting point is the planar interface, the profile of which is calculated in…
We present an extremely simplified model of multiple-domains polymer stretching in an atomic force microscopy experiment. We portray each module as a binary set of contacts and decompose the system energy into a harmonic term (the…
Via computer simulations, we demonstrate how a densely grafted layer of polymers, a {\it brush}, could be turned into an efficient switch through chemical modification of some of its end-monomers. In this way, a surface coating with…
Large-scale simulations of thermal welding of polymers are performed to investigate the rise of mechanical strength at the polymer-polymer interface with the welding time. The welding process is in the core of integrating polymeric elements…
The entropy of a polymer confined in a curved surface and the elastic free energy of a membrane consisting of polymers are obtained by scaling analysis. It is found that the elastic free energy of the membrane has the form of the in-plane…
Motivated by single molecule experiments on biopolymers we explore equilibrium morphologies and force-extension behavior of copolymers with hydrophobic segments using Langevin dynamics simulations. We find that the interplay between…
Deformations of heavy elastic cylinders with their axis in the direction of earth's gravity field are investigated. The specimens, made of polyacrylamide hydrogels, are attached from their top circular cross section to a rigid plate. An…
Mean-field theory is used to model polyelectrolyte adsorption and the possibility of overcompensation of charged surfaces. For charged surfaces that are also chemically attractive, the overcharging is large in high salt conditions,…
The interaction of polymers with turbulent shear flows is examined. We focus on the structure of the elastic stress tensor, which is proportional to the polymer conformation tensor. We examine this object in turbulent flows of increasing…
In this paper we perform molecular dynamics simulations of a spherical polyelectrolyte brush and counterions in a salt-free medium. The dielectric discontinuity on the grafted nanoparticle surface is taken into account by the method of…
We propose a detailed description of the structure of the layer formed by polyelectrolyte chains adsorbed onto an oppositely charged surface in the semi-dilute regime. We combine the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann-Edwards theory and the…