Related papers: Solvation Effects in Phase Transitions in Soft Mat…
We present a mechanism for the stabilization of colloids in liquid mixtures without use of surfactants or polymers. When a suitable salt is added to a solvent mixture, the coupling of the colloid's surface chemistry and the preferential…
We employ the recently introduced generalized microcanonical inflection point method for the statistical analysis of phase transitions in flexible and semiflexible polymers and study the impact of the bending stiffness upon the character…
We characterise the structural properties of the quasi-liquid layer (QLL) at two low-index ice surfaces in the presence of sodium chloride (Na$^+/$Cl$^-$) ions by molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the presence of a high surface…
We study the effects of the degeneracy of the $e_g$ orbitals as well as the double exchange interaction with $t_{2g}$ spins in perovskite transition-metal oxides. In addition to the spin field ${\vec S}_i$, the isospin field ${\vec T}_i$ is…
We investigate theoretically the phase diagram of an insoluble charged surfactant monolayer in contact with a semi-dilute polyelectrolyte solution (of opposite charge). The polyelectrolytes are assumed to have long-range and attractive…
The aversion of hydrophobic solutes for water drives diverse interactions and assemblies across materials science, biology and beyond. % Here, we review the theoretical, computational and experimental developments which underpin a…
We present a theory of nonionic solutes in a mixture solvent composed of water-like and alcohol-like species. First, we show relationship among the solvation chemical potential, the partial volumes $v_i$, the Kirkwood-Buff integrals, the…
Deformable colloids and macromolecules adsorb at interfaces, as they decrease the interfacial energy between the two media. The deformability, or softness, of these particles plays a pivotal role in the properties of the interface. In this…
Adsorption of small amphiphilic molecules occurs in various biological and technological processes, sometimes desired, the other times unwanted (e.g., contamination). Surface-active molecules preferentially bind to interfaces and affect…
Thin films of binary mixtures that interact through isotropic forces and directionally specific "hydrogen bonding" are considered through Monte Carlo simulations. We show, in good agreement with experiment, that the single phase of these…
Electrostatic interactions fundamentally govern the structure and transport of electrolytes. In concentrated electrolytes, however, electrostatic and steric correlations, together with ion-solvent coupling, give rise to complex behavior,…
Biological mixtures such as the cytosol may consist of thousands of distinct components. There is now a substantial body of evidence showing that, under physiological conditions, intracellular mixtures can phase separate into spatially…
The spreading of a pure, volatile liquid on a wettable substrate has been studied in extensive detail. Here we show that the addition of a miscible, non-volatile liquid can strongly alter the contact line dynamics and the final liquid…
We utilize a glass-like structural transition in order to induce a Mott metal-insulator transition in the quasi-two-dimensional organic charge-transfer salt $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br. In this material, the terminal ethylene…
Electrostatic interactions involving proteins depend not just on the ionic charges involved but also on their chemical identities. Here we examine the origins of incompletely understood differences in the strength of association of…
Ion transport is the major determining factor of salinity tolerance in plants. A simple scheme of a plant cell with ion fluxes provides basic understanding of ion transport and the corresponding changes of ion concentrations under salinity.…
A variational theory is developed to study electrolyte solutions, composed of interacting point-like ions in a solvent, in the presence of dielectric discontinuities and charges at the boundaries. Three important and non-linear…
The structure and thermodynamic state of a system changes under the influence of external electric fields. Neutral systems are characterized by their dielectric constant epsilon, while charged ones also by their charge distribution. In this…
Context: Understanding the collisional properties of ice is important for understanding both the early stages of planet formation and the evolution of planetary ring systems. Simple chemicals such as methanol and formic acid are known to be…
Using a theory of polarizable fluids, we extend a variational treatment of an excess electron to the many-electron case corresponding to finite metal concentrations in metal-ammonia solutions (MAS). We evaluate dielectric, optical, and…