Related papers: Modifying Fragility and Collective Motion in Polym…
The advances in new technologies have prompted the need for functional systems smaller than the gyration radius of polymer chains. Thus, understanding how nanoconfinement affects polymer properties has been the focus of a lot of research…
Describing the dynamics and thermodynamics of amorphous materials near the glass transition is a major challenge in soft-matter physics and polymer engineering. Here, we show that the dependence of the dielectric alpha-relaxation time on…
The generalized entropy theory is applied to assess the joint influence of the microscopic cohesive energy and chain stiffness on glass formation in polymer melts using a minimal model containing a single bending energy and a single…
We examine the thermally-induced fracture of an unstrained polymer chain of discrete segments coupled by an anharmonic potential by means of Molecular Dynamics simulation with a Langevin thermostat. Cases of both under- and over-damped…
Temperature-sensitive hydrogels based on polymers such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) undergo a volume phase transition in response to changes in temperature. During this transition, distinct changes in both thermal and mechanical…
Polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) can provide property profiles than cannot be obtained individually by polymers or nanoparticles (NPs). Here, we have studied the mixing--demixing transition of symmetric copolymer melts of…
We report extensive numerical simulations of different models of 2D polymer rings with internal elasticity. We monitor the dynamical behavior of the rings as a function of the packing fraction, to address the effects of particle deformation…
The dipolar interaction is known to substantially affect the properties of magnetic nanoparticles. This is particularly important when the particles are kept in a fluid suspension or packed inside nano-carriers. In addition to its usual…
Changes in the mechanical properties of granular materials, induced by variations in the intrinsic compressibility of the particles, are investigated by means of numerical simulations based on the combination of the Finite Element and…
We performed molecular dynamics (MD) experiments to explore dry sliding friction at the nanoscale. We used the setup comprised of a spherical particle built up of 32,000 aluminium atoms, resting on a semi-space with a free surface, modelled…
Molecular dynamics studies of nono-sized rigid grains, droplets and bubbles in nano-sized pores indicate that the drag force may have a hydrodynamic form if the moving object is dense and small compared to the pore diameter. Otherwise, the…
We investigate how structural relaxation in mixtures with strong dynamical asymmetry is affected by the microscopic dynamics. Brownian and Newtonian dynamics simulations of dense mixtures of fast and slow hard spheres reveal a striking…
Understanding, predicting and eventually improving the resistance to fracture of silicate materials is of primary importance to design new glasses that would be tougher, while retaining their transparency. However, the atomic mechanism of…
The influence of shape fluctuations on deformable thermosensitive microgels in aqueous solution is investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and depolarized dynamic light scattering (DDLS). The systems under study consist of a solid…
Polymer composite materials are widely used for their exceptional mechanical properties, notably their ability to resist large deformations. Here we examine the failure stress and strain of rubbers reinforced by varying amounts of…
We constrast the dynamics in model unentangled polymer melts of chains of three different stiffnesses: flexible, intermediate, and rodlike. Flexible and rodlike chains, which readily solidify into close-packed crystals (respectively with…
The dynamical response of Coulomb-interacting particles in nano-clusters are analyzed at different temperatures characterizing their solid- and liquid-like behavior. Depending on the trap-symmetry, both the spatial and temporal correlations…
The term "fragility" describes the rate at which viscosity grows when a supercooled liquid approaches its putative glass transition temperature. The field of glassy materials is actively searching for a structural origin that governs this…
Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations are used to simulate a layer of nanoparticles diffusing on the surface of a liquid. Both a low viscosity liquid, represented by Lennard-Jones monomers, and a high viscosity liquid, represented by…
Polyamide 6,6 (PA66) is a key engineering polymer, whose unique mechanical properties arise from strong interchain hydrogen bonding. However, its hygroscopic nature makes it highly sensitive to water uptake, which markedly alters its…