Related papers: Confined polymer nematics: order and packing in a …
Motivated by recent nanofluidics experiments, we use Brownian dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations to study the conformation, organization and dynamics of two polymer chains confined to a single box-like cavity. The polymers are modeled as…
The packing of elastic bodies has emerged as a paradigm for the study of macroscopic disordered systems. However, progress is hampered by the lack of controlled experiments. Here we consider a model experiment for the isotropic…
The recently introduced nested sampling algorithm allows the direct and efficient calculation of the partition function of atomistic systems. We demonstrate its applicability to condensed phase systems with periodic boundary conditions by…
Using scaled-particle theory for binary mixtures of two-dimensional hard particles with rotational freedom, we analyse the stability of nematic phases and the demixing phase behaviour of a variety of mixtures, focussing on cases where at…
We study the link between three seeming-disparate cases of self-avoiding polymers: strongly overlapping multiple chains in dilute solution, chains under spherical confinement, and the onset of semi-dilute solutions. Our main result is that…
We study the possibility of the spinodal decomposition in the induction period of the polymer crystallization. This phenomenon was first reported in an X-ray scattering experiment, and has still been controversial due to various experiments…
The local balance equations for the density, momentum, and energy of a dilute gas of elastic or inelastic hard spheres, strongly confined between two parallel hard plates are obtained. The starting point is a Boltzmann-like kinetic…
Within the framework of continuum theory, we draw a parallel between ferromagnetic materials and nematic liquid crystals confined on curved surfaces, which are both characterized by local interaction and anchoring potentials. We show that…
The sliding of non-Newtonian drops down planar surfaces results in a complex, entangled balance between interfacial forces and non linear viscous dissipation, which has been scarcely inspected. In particular, a detailed understanding of the…
Polymers confined to a narrow channel are subject to strong entropic forces that tend to drive the molecules apart. In this study, we use Monte Carlo computer simulations to study the segregation behavior of two flexible hard-sphere…
Polymer entanglements lead to complicated topological constraints and interactions between neighbouring chains in a dense solution or melt. Entanglements can be treated in a mean field approach, within the famous reptation model, since they…
We present results from molecular dynamics simulations of a spherically confined neutral polymer in the presence of crowding agents, studying polymer shapes and conformations as a function of the confining potential, solvent quality and the…
We introduce a class of models of semiflexible polymers. The latter are characterized by a strong rigidity, the correlation length associated to the gradient-gradient correlations, called the persistence length, being of the same order as…
We study jammed configurations of hard spheres as a function of compression speed using an event-driven molecular dynamics algorithm. We find that during the compression, the pressure follows closely the metastable liquid branch until the…
The relation between elasticity and yielding is investigated in a model polymer solid by Molecular-Dynamics simulations. By changing the bending stiffness of the chain and the bond length, semicrystalline and disordered glassy polymers -…
Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the dynamics of a flexible polymer translocation into a confined area under a driving force through a nanopore. We choose an ellipsoidal shape for the confinement and consider the…
Orientational dynamics in the isotropic phase of a comb-shaped nematic polymer with mesogenic and functional side groups was studied using the Kerr effect and dielectric spectroscopy. For the first time, it was found that in a mesogenic…
We study a model of "elastic" lattice polymer in which a fixed number of monomers $m$ is hosted by a self-avoiding walk with fluctuating length $l$. We show that the stored length density $\rho_m = 1 - <l>/m$ scales asymptotically for large…
In this chapter we review the rich behavior of polymer chains embedded in a quenched random environment. We first consider the problem of a Gaussian chain free to move in a random potential with short-ranged correlations. We derive the…
We consider a model mixture of hard colloidal spheres and non-adsorbing polymer chains in a theta solvent. The polymer component is modelled as a polydisperse mixture of effective spheres, mutually noninteracting but excluded from the…