Related papers: Polymer crystal-melt interfaces and nucleation in …
Nucleation plays a critical role in the birth of crystals and is associated with a vast array of phenomena such as protein crystallization and ice formation in clouds. Despite numerous experimental and theoretical studies, many aspects of…
The basic physics of nucleation in solid \hl{single-crystal} nanoparticles is revealed by a phase-field theory that includes surface energy, chemical reactions and coherency strain. In contrast to binary fluids, which form arbitrary contact…
We investigate the finite-temperature phase diagram of polar molecules confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry by a harmonic potential along the polarization axis. We employ Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the strongly…
We report Monte Carlo simulations of the melting of a single-polymer crystallite. We find that, unlike most atomic and molecular crystals, such crystallites can be heated appreciably above their melting temperature before they transform to…
Vitrimers are a class of crosslinked polymer that are capable of undergoing bond exchange reactions, allowing structural reorganization while maintaining overall network integrity. Two key features that are particularly relevant when this…
The crystal-melt interfaces of a binary hard-sphere fluid mixture in coexistence with a single-component hard-sphere crystal is investigated using molecular-dynamics simulation. In the system under study, the fluid phase consists of a…
In the search for phase change materials (PCM) that may rival traditional random access memory, a complete understanding of the amorphous to crystalline phase transition is required. For the well-known Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) and GeTe (GT)…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
We use machine learning algorithms to detect the crystalline phase in undercooled melts in molecular dynamics simulations. Our classification method is based on local conformation and environmental fingerprints of individual monomers. In…
We study pore nucleation in a model membrane system, a freestanding polymer film. Nucleated pores smaller than a critical size close, while pores larger than the critical size grow. Holes of varying size were purposefully prepared in liquid…
We reconsider the applicability of classical nucleation theory (CNT) to the calculation of the free energy of solid cluster formation in a liquid and its use to the evaluation of interface free energies from nucleation barriers. Using two…
A simple model of a polymer with long rigid segments which interact via excluded volume repulsions and short ranged attractions is proposed. The coil-globule transition of this model polymer is strongly first order, the globule is…
I develop a kinetic mechanism to explain chain folding in polymer crystallization which is based on the competition between the formation of stems, which is due to frequent occupations of trans states along the chains in the supercooled…
Crucial to gaining control over crystallisation in multicomponent materials or accurately modelling rheological behaviour of magma flows is to understand the mechanisms by which crystal nuclei form. The microscopic nature of such nuclei,…
The phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters there is a variety of possible…
We investigate the formation of polycrystalline structures in a class of particle systems. The atomistic energy is modeled as a sum of particle energies that favor atoms being locally isometric to a reference lattice. The discrete frame…
We characterize both analytically and numerically short-range forces between spatially diffuse interfaces in multi-phase-field models of polycrystalline materials. During late-stage solidification, crystal-melt interfaces may attract or…
We calculate statistical properties of amorphous polymer chains between crystalline lamellae by self-consistent field model simulations. In our model, an amorphous subchain is modelled as a polymer chain of which ends are grafted onto the…
Premelting at the ice-polymer interfaces, in which a quasi-liquid layer (QLL) forms below the melting point, is strongly influenced by polymer surface chemistry; however, the molecular-scale mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly…
Semi-crystalline polymers have been shown to have greatly increased thermal conductivity compared to amorphous bulk polymers due to effective heat conduction along the covalent bonds of the backbone. However, the mechanisms governing the…