Related papers: Controlling the Interactions between Soft Colloids…
The behavior of annealed branched polymers near adsorbing surfaces plays a fundamental role in many biological and industrial processes. Most importantly single stranded RNA in solution tends to fold up and self-bind to form a highly…
Ligand coated nanoparticles are complex objects consisting of a metallic or semiconductor core with organic ligands grafted on their surface. These organic ligands provide stability to a nanoparticle suspension. In solutions, the effective…
The close packing density of log-normal and bimodal distributed, surface-adsorbed particles or discs in 2D is studied by numerical simulation. For small spread in particle size, the system orders in a polycrystalline structure of hexagonal…
Immediately before adsorption to a horizontal substrate, sinking polymer-coated colloids can undergo a complex sequence of landing, jumping, crawling and rolling events. Using video tracking we studied the soft adhesion to a horizontal flat…
The adsorption of a single ideal polymer chain on energetically heterogeneous and rough surfaces is investigated using a variational procedure introduced by Garel and Orland (Phys. Rev. B 55 (1997), 226). The mean polymer size is calculated…
Bottle brushes are polymeric macromolecules made of a linear polymeric backbone grafted with side chains. The choice of the grafting density {\sigma}g, the length ns the grafted side chains and their chemical nature fully determines the…
We study analytically a model of a two dimensional, partially directed, flexible or semiflexible polymer, attached to an attractive wall which is perpendicular to the preferred direction. In addition, the polymer is stretched by an…
We employ monomer-resolved Molecular Dynamics simulations and theoretical considerations to analyze the conformations of multiarm polyelectrolyte stars close to planar, uncharged walls. We identify three mechanisms that contribute to the…
The influence of monomer-monomer interactions on the scaling exponents and shape characteristics of a single polymer chain in a selective solvent is investigated using Langevin dynamics simulations. By systematically increasing the…
The efficiency of soft particles to stabilize emulsions is examined by measuring their desorption free energy, i.e., the mechanical work required to detach the particle from a fluid interface. Here, we consider rubber-like elastic as well…
The interactions between spherical colloids covered with end-grafted polymers (brushes) immersed in a polymer melt are studied theoretically. We show that attractive enthalpic interactions between the two polymer species, characterized by a…
Using video-microscopy imaging we demonstrate the existence of a short-ranged equilibrium attraction between heavy silica colloids diffusing on soft surfaces of cross-linked polymer gels. The inter-colloid potential can be tuned by changing…
By means of numerical simulations, we study the influence of confinement on three-dimensional random close packed (RCP) granular materials subject to gravity. The effects of grain shape (spherical or polyhedral) and polydispersity on this…
Monolayers of soft colloidal particles confined at fluid interfaces have been attracting increasing interest for fundamental studies and applications alike. However, establishing the relation between their internal architecture, which is…
The surface a thin-film is attached to and the surrounding monolayer causes geometrical confinement of a interrogated molecule; we look at the base case of a SC$_{18}H_{37}$ in a SC$_{18}H_{37}$ monolayer on Au[111]. Normal mode analysis…
Most active colloid experiments are quasi-2D. Here a 3D density-matched solution of active particles propelled and aligned with an AC electric field uniquely facilitates measurement of short and long-range particle-wall interactions.…
Using computer simulations and theory, we investigate the ultrasoft interactions between dendrimers formed of a central polymer connected by stiff linkers to a corona of flexible polymers, forming `pompoms' at the ends of the linkers. We…
We review recent results of the field theoretical renormalization group analysis on the scaling properties of star polymers. We give a brief account of how the numerical values of the exponents governing the scaling of star polymers were…
We employ effective interaction potentials to study the equilibrium structure and phase behavior of highly asymmetric mixtures of star polymers. We consider in particular the influence of the addition of a component with a small number of…
Soft interfaces can mediate interactions between particles bound to them. The force transmitted through the surface geometry on a particle may be expressed as a closed line integral of the surface stress tensor around that particle. This…