Related papers: Nonlinear mechanics of thermoreversibly associatin…
In this Perspective, I describe recent work on systems in which the traditional distinctions between (i) unentangled vs. well-entangled systems and (ii) melts vs. glasses seem least useful, and argue for the broader use in glassy polymer…
We investigate the static and dynamic properties of dendrimers diffusing through a network of linear associative polymers using coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations. Both dendrimers and network chains are modelled as bead-spring…
Hybrid molecular dynamics/Monte Carlo simulations used to study melts of unentangled, thermoreversibly associating supramolecular polymers. In this first of a series of papers, we describe and validate a model that is effective in…
Many structural glasses feature static and dynamic mechanical properties that can depend strongly on glass formation history. The degree of universality of this history-dependence, and what it is possibly affected by, are largely…
We investigate the mechanical properties of amorphous polymers by means of coarse-grained simulations and nonaffine lattice dynamics theory. A small increase of polymer chain bending stiffness leads first to softening of the material, while…
We present an experimental investigation of the non stationary frictional properties of multicontact interfaces between rough elastomers and rough hard glass at low velocities (<= 200 mu m s^{-1}). These systems, for which the deformation…
Natural systems, such as tendons and spider silk, demonstrate how the combination of strength and stretchability can be effectively achieved by integrating stiff and flexible network structures. Inspired by these systems, we developed a…
The effect of tensile stress applied during cooling of binary glasses on the potential energy states and mechanical properties is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. We study the three-dimensional binary mixture that was…
Molecular dynamics simulations have been employed to study the formation of a physical (thermoreversible) gel by amphiphilic A-B-A triblock copolymers in aqueous solution. In order to mimic the structure of hydrogel-forming polypeptides…
The axiomatic theory of ideally glassy networks, which has proved effective in describing phase diagrams and many properties of chalcogenide, oxide, and even molecular glasses, is here broadened to describe both geometrical properties, such…
Unlike hard materials such as metals and ceramics, rubbery materials can endure large deformations due to the large conformational degree of freedom of the crosslinked three-dimensional polymer network. However, the effect of the branching…
Bonding between polymeric interfaces is encountered widely in several industrial applications. Many of these bonding processes rely on time-consuming and temperature-dependent classical mechanism of polymer interdiffusion via reptation in a…
Simulations are used to examine the microscopic origins of strain hardening in polymer glasses. While traditional entropic network models can be fit to the total stress, their underlying assumptions are inconsistent with simulation results.…
Polymer gels are comprised of a three-dimensional, cross-linked network that can typically withstand the mechanical deformation associated with both swelling and de-swelling. Thus, gels can be designed with smart behaviors that require both…
Designing and fabricating structures with specific mechanical properties requires understanding the intricate relationship between design parameters and performance. Understanding the design-performance relationship becomes increasingly…
We present a theory for the elasticity of cross-linked stiff polymer networks. Stiff polymers, unlike their flexible counterparts, are highly anisotropic elastic objects. Similar to mechanical beams stiff polymers easily deform in bending,…
Vitrimers are polymer networks that, thanks to covalent bond exchange, combine desirable properties of thermoplastic and thermosets, such as flowability and insolubility. For this reason, vitrimers are considered to be good candidates for a…
Using coarse-grained molecular-dynamics simulations, a generic styrene-(block)-butadiene-(block)-styrene (SBS) triblock copolymer under lamellar conformation is used in order to investigate the mutual entanglement evolution when a structure…
We explore the link between soft vibrational modes and local relaxation events in polymer glasses during physical aging, active deformation at constant strain rate, and subsequent recovery. A softness field is constructed out of the…
The non-Newtonian behaviors of dense suspensions are central to their use in technological and industrial applications and arise from a network of particle-particle contacts that dynamically adapts to imposed shear. Reported herein are…