Related papers: Mediating gel formation from structurally controll…
Applying an electric field to an aqueous colloidal dispersion establishes a complex interplay of forces among the highly mobile simple ions, the more highly charged but less mobile colloidal spheres, and the surrounding water. This…
The noble elements constitute the simplest group of atoms. At low temperatures or high pressures they freeze into the face-centered cubic (fcc) crystal structure (except helium). We perform molecular dynamics using the recently proposed…
When polyelectrolyte-neutral block copolymers are mixed in solutions to oppositely charged species (e.g. surfactant micelles, macromolecules, proteins etc), there is the formation of stable supermicellar aggregates combining both…
Poly(ethylene oxide)-$\textit{b}$-poly(butylmethacrylate) (PEO-$\textit{b}$-PBMA) copolymers have recently been identified as excellent building blocks for the synthesis of hierarchical nanoporous materials. Nevertheless, while experiments…
In this work, we discuss the quantum mechanics of many-body systems i.e. hybrid microgel consisting of negatively charged anionic microgels possessing thick sheath of water molecules solvating its protruding anionic moieties and…
The contact of a hydrogel during the rotational shearing on glass surface in concentrated polymer solution was observed in situ. Dynamic contact patterns that rotate in-phase with the rotational shearing of the gel were observed for the…
Alkaline water electrolysis is considered a commercially viable option for large-scale hydrogen production. However, this process still faces challenges due to the high voltage (>1.65 V at 10 mA cm$^{-2}$) and its limited stability at…
In a nematic gel, the appearance of nematic order is accompanied by a spontaneous elongation of the gel parallel to the nematic director. If such a gel is made chiral, it has a tendency to form a cholesteric helical texture, in which local…
We study both experimentally and theoretically the self-assembly of binary block copolymers in dilute solution, where self-assembly is triggered by changing the solvent from the common good solvent THF to the selective solvent water, and…
In the last few years, interest in monomolecular layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been driven by their unusual electronic and optical properties, which are very attractive for designing functional elements of new…
The helix is a ubiquitous motif for biopolymers. We propose a heuristic, entropically based model that predicts helix formation in a system of hard spheres and semiflexible tubes. We find that the entropy of the spheres is maximized when…
In the last years, important non-linear optical results on sol-gel and polymeric materials have been reported, with values comparable to those found in crystals. These new materials contain push-pull chromophores either incorporated as…
Solutions of polymer chains are modelled using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics simulations, with physically associative beads which form reversible crosslinks to establish a system-spanning physical gel network. Rheological properties…
We present a kinetic model of crystal growth of polymers of finite molecular weight. Experiments help to classify polymer crystallization broadly into two kinetic regimes. One is observed in melts or in high molar mass polymer solutions and…
Herein, we describe new methods to produce colloidal particle chains of three stiffness regimes that can be observed on a single-particle level, that is, on the level of the monomers that make up the chain; the chains can even be observed…
Using a theory of polarizable fluids, we extend a variational treatment of an excess electron to the many-electron case corresponding to finite metal concentrations in metal-ammonia solutions (MAS). We evaluate dielectric, optical, and…
We introduce an exactly solvable statistical-mechanical model of the hydration of non-polar compounds, based on grouping water molecules in clusters where hydrogen bonds and isotropic interactions occur; interactions between clusters are…
The dynamics of hydrogen bubbles produced by water electrolysis in an acidic electrolyte are studied using electrochemical and optical methods. A defined cyclic modulation of the electric potential is applied at a microelectrode to produce…
Hydrophobic interactions provide driving forces for protein folding, membrane formation, and oil-water separation. Motivated by information theory, the poorly understood nonpolar solute interactions in water are investigated. A simple…
Ferrogels, i.e., hydrogels loaded with magnetic nanoparticles, have the ability to deform in external magnetic fields. The precise shape of deformation and the alignment of the gel in the field, however, depend on the interplay of several…