Related papers: Polymer Crowding and Shape Distributions in Polyme…
We study flexible polymer macromolecules in a crowded (porous) environment, modelling them as self-attracting self-avoiding walks (SASAW) on site-diluted percolative lattices in space dimensions d=2, 3. The influence of stretching force on…
The statistical theory of polymers tethered around the inner surface of a cylindrical channel has traditionally employed the assumption that the equilibrium density of the polymers is independent of the azimuthal coordinate. However,…
We investigate the effect of the size of nanoparticles on the behaviour of equilibrium polymers (Wormlike micelles) and nanoparticle system. The self-organised structures of nanoparticles in the system show a morphological change from…
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of an idealized polymer melt surrounding a nanoscopic filler particle to probe the effects of a filler on the local melt structure and dynamics. We show that the glass transition temperature $T_g$…
The structural features of polystyrene brushes grafted on spherical silica nanoparticles immersed in polystyrene are investigated by means of a Monte Carlo methodology based on polymer mean field theory. The nanoparticle radii (either 8 nm…
Polymer solutions subject to pressure driven flow and in nanoscale slit pores are systematically investigated using the dissipative particle dynamics approach. We investigated the effect of molecular weight, polymer concentration and flow…
We investigate the dynamics of nanoparticles in semidilute polymer solutions when the nanoparticles are comparably sized to the polymer coils using explicit- and implicit-solvent simulation methods. The nanoparticle dynamics are…
The structure of a polystyrene matrix filled with tightly cross-linked polystyrene nanoparticles, forming an athermal nanocomposite system, is investigated by means of a Monte Carlo sampling formalism. The polymer chains are represented as…
Field-theoretical method is efficient in predicting the assembling structures of polymeric systems. However, for the polymer/nanoparticle mixture, the continuous density description is not suitable to capture the realistic assembly of…
While recent efforts have shown how local structure plays an essential role in the dynamic heterogeneity of homogeneous glass-forming materials, systems containing interfaces such as thin films or composite materials remain poorly…
We investigate polymer partitioning from polymer mixtures into nanometer size cavities by formulating an equation of state for a binary polymer mixture assuming that only one (smaller) of the two polymer components can penetrate the cavity.…
Ordering nanoparticles into a desired super-structure is often crucial for their technological applications. We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the assembly of nanoparticles in a polymer brush randomly grafted to a planar…
Motivated by recent experiments probing shape, size and dynamics of bacterial chromosomes in growing cells, we consider a polymer model consisting of a circular backbone to which side-loops are attached, confined to a cylindrical cell. Such…
We investigate the effect of polymer length dispersity on the properties of self-assembled micelles in solution by self-consistent field calculations. Polydispersity stabilizes micelles by raising the free energy barriers of micelle…
The interior of cells is crowded thus making it important to assess the effects of macromolecules on the folding of proteins. Using the Self-Organized Polymer (SOP) model, which is a coarse-grained representation of polypeptide chains, we…
Colloid or nanoparticle mobility under confinement is of central importance to a wide range of physical and biological processes. Here, we introduce a minimal model of particles in a hydrodynamic continuum to examine how particle shape and…
Conformations of a crowded neutral semiflexible polymer under confinement near an attractive wall are studied via coarse-grained simulations. We study the effects of the interplay of the length of the polymer, bending rigidity, and the…
We investigate the conformations of a semiflexible polymer confined to a square box. Results of Monte Carlo simulations show the existence of a shape transition when the persistence length of the polymer becomes comparable to the dimensions…
Designable media can control properties of nanocomposite materials by spatially organizing nanoparticles. Here we theoretically study particle organization by ultrathin polymer films of grafted chains (``brushes''). Polymer-soluble…
The organization of nano-particles inside grafted polymer layers is governed by the interplay of polymer-induced entropic interactions and the action of externally applied fields. Earlier work had shown that strong external forces can drive…