Related papers: Star polymers as unit cells for coarse-graining cr…
The distance-resolved effective interaction between two star polymers in a good solvent is calculated by Molecular Dynamics computer simulations. The results are compared with a pair potential proposed recently by Likos et al. [Phys. Rev.…
In this thesis the formation and properties of a polymer gel on and at a surface are investigated. The gel under investigation is defined as a three-dimensional network of "phantom" macromolecules that form permanent links with one another…
Living matter moves, deforms, and organizes itself. In cells this is made possible by networks of polymer filaments and crosslinking molecules that connect filaments to each other and that act as motors to do mechanical work on the network.…
We characterize the force state of shear-loaded granular matter by relating the macroscopic stress to statistical properties of the force network. The purely repulsive nature of the interaction between grains naturally provides an upper…
The distances over which biological molecules and their complexes can function range from a few nanometres, in the case of folded structures, to millimetres, for example during chromosome organization. Describing phenomena that cover such…
We systematically studied the validity and transferability of effective, coarse-grained, pair potentials in ultrasoft colloidal systems. We focused on amphiphilic dendrimers, macromolecules which can aggregate into clusters of overlapping…
The diffusion of molecules (penetrants) of variable size, shape, and chemistry through dense crosslinked polymer networks is a fundamental scientific problem that is broadly relevant in materials, polymer, physical and biological chemistry.…
Tissues commonly consist of cells embedded within a fibrous biopolymer network. Whereas cell-free reconstituted biopolymer networks typically soften under applied uniaxial compression, various tissues, including liver, brain, and fat, have…
PEP-PEO block copolymer micelles offer the possibility to investigate phase behaviour and interactions of star polymers (ultra-soft colloids). A star-like architecture is achieved by an extremely asymmetric block ratio (1:20). Micellar…
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…
Using the bond fluctuation model we study polymer networks obtained by endlinking of symmetric 4-arm star polymers. We consider two types of systems. Solutions of one type (A) of star polymers and solution of two types (A,B) of star polymer…
Coagulation-flocculation of pollutants and chelation of heavy metal ions are two widely used techniques in wastewater purification. Despite the differences between their respective mechanisms and inherent length scales, they bear much…
The problem of detecting dark matter filaments in the cosmic web is considered. Weak lensing is an ideal probe of dark matter, and therefore forms the basis of particularly promising detection methods. We consider and develop a number of…
Monte Carlo simulations of coarse-grained polymers provide a useful tool to deepen the understanding of conformational and statistical properties of polymers both in physical as well as in biological systems. In this study we sample compact…
Self-healing polymers crosslinked by solely reversible bonds are intrinsically weaker than common covalently crosslinked networks. Introducing covalent crosslinks into a reversible network would improve mechanical strength. It is…
We review the physical properties of macromolecular networks, consisting of semiflexible polymers such as actin. We start by giving a theoretical analysis of the conformational statistics and mechanical response of single filaments.…
Inspired by the ubiquity of composite filamentous networks in nature we investigate models of biopolymer networks that consist of interconnected floppy and stiff filaments. Numerical simulations carried out in three dimensions allow us to…
Many complex systems can be represented as networks composed by distinct layers, interacting and depending on each others. For example, in biology, a good description of the full protein-protein interactome requires, for some organisms, up…
We report on the linear viscoelastic properties of mixtures comprising multiarm star (as model soft colloids) and long linear chain homopolymers in a good solvent. In contrast to earlier works, we investigated symmetric mixtures (with a…
Unstructured pruning has the limitation of dealing with the sparse and irregular weights. By contrast, structured pruning can help eliminate this drawback but it requires complex criterion to determine which components to be pruned. To this…