Related papers: Shape variation of micelles in polymer thin films
We study equilibrium shapes and shape transformations of a confined semiflexible chain inside a soft lipid tubule using simulations and continuum theories. The deformed tubular shapes and chain conformations depend on the relative magnitude…
We investigate equilibrium microstructures exhibited by diblock copolymers in confined 3D geometries. We perform Self-Consistent Field Theory (SCFT) simulations using a finite-element based computational framework (Ackerman et al. 2017),…
Self-assembly of ordered nanometer-scale patterns is interesting in itself, but its practical value depends on the ability to predict and control pattern formation. In this paper we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that engineering…
Polymeric particles are strong candidates for designing artificial materials capable of emulating the complex twisting-based functionality observed in biological systems. In this letter, we provide the first detailed investigation of the…
Crystallization within the discrete spheres of a block copolymer mesophase was studied by time-resolved x-ray scattering. The cubic packing of microdomains, established by self-assembly in the melt, is preserved throughout crystallization…
The rapid collapse of a polymer, due to external forces or changes in solvent, yields a long-lived `crumpled globule.' The conjectured fractal structure shaped by hierarchical collapse dynamics has proved difficult to establish, even with…
Following up a recent paper on grafted sliding polymer layers (Macromolecules 2005, 38, 1434-1441), we investigated the influence of the sliding degree of freedom on the self-assembly of sliding polymeric surfactants that can be obtained by…
Equilibration of polymer melts containing highly entangled long polymer chains in confinement or with free surfaces is a challenge for computer simulations. We approach this problem by first studying polymer melts based on the soft-sphere…
By means of sophisticated Monte Carlo methods, we investigate the conformational phase diagram of a simple model for flexible polymers with explicit thickness. The thickness constraint, which is introduced geometrically via the global…
The stability of micelles self-assembled from block copolymers can be altered by the degradation of the blocks. Slow degradation shifts the equilibrium size distribution of block copolymer micelles and change their properties.…
A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film.…
Nanoscale polymeric thin films are widely used in diverse applications such as energy devices, flexible electronics and biosensors, where a satisfactory mechanical performance is of vital importance to realize their full functionality. It…
We report simulation results on melts of entangled linear polymers confined in a free-standing thin film. We study how the geometric constraints imposed by the confinement alter the entanglement state of the system compared to the…
We extensively study the phase diagram of a diblock copolymer melt confined in a cylindrical nanopore using real-space self-consistent mean-field theory. We discover a rich variety of new two-dimensional equilibrium structures that have no…
We study the phase behavior of a symmetric binary polymer blend which is confined into a thin film. The film surfaces interact with the monomers via short range potentials. We calculate the phase behavior within the self-consistent field…
We present an extensive computer simulation study of structure formation in amphiphilic block copolymer solutions after a quench from a homogeneous state. By using a mesoscopic field-based simulation method, we are able to access time…
The bending rigidity $k_c$ of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane…
In this paper the evolution of a binary mixture in a thin-film geometry with a wall at the top and bottom is considered. By bringing the mixture into its miscibility gap so that no spinodal decomposition occurs in the bulk, a slight…
We investigate morphologies of semiflexible polymer rings, such as circular DNA, which are adsorbed onto topographically or chemically structured substrate surfaces. We classify all equilibrium morphologies for two striped surface…
We present results from a comprehensive numerical study of {\it morphological phase separation} (MPS) in unstable thin liquid films on a 2-dimensional substrate. We study the quantitative properties of the evolution morphology via several…