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The thermosensitivity and microstructure of microgels made by copolymerizing standard microgel-forming monomers with more hydrophilic comonomers is investigated, with the aim of increasing the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT). We…
We consider a functional surface comprising thermoresponsive polymer chains, the material that has found numerous technological and biomedical applications. However, to achieve the required time and length scales for computer modelling of…
We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering…
Understanding polymer adsorption at interfaces is essential for designing advanced polymer-based nanomaterials with tailored interfacial properties. Although adsorption significantly influences the macroscopic properties of polymer…
We combine small angle scattering experiments and simulations to investigate the internal structure and interactions of composite Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-Poly(ethylene glycol) (PNIPAM-PEG) microgels. At low temperatures the…
A low-temperature dynamical transition has been reported in several proteins. We provide the first observation of a `protein-like' dynamical transition in nonbiological aqueous environments. To this aim we exploit the popular colloidal…
Hypothesis: While the mechanical disruption of microscopic structures in complex fluids by large shear flows has been studied extensively, the effects of applied strains on the dielectric properties of macromolecular aggregates has received…
Adsorption of polymers to surfaces is crucial for understanding many fundamental processes in nature. Recent experimental studies indicate that the adsorption dynamics is dominated by non-equilibrium effects. We investigate the adsorption…
Interpenetrated Polymer Network (IPN) microgels of PNIPAM and PAAc have been investigated and the experimental data have been compared with theoretical models from the Flory-Rehner theory. We confirm that the swelling behavior of PNIPAM…
We describe the design of micropatterned surfaces for single cell studies, based on thermoresponsive polymer brushes. We show that brushes made of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) grafted at high surface density display excellent protein and…
We probe, using the Surface Forces Apparatus, the thermal response of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes of various grafting densities, grown from plasma-activated mica by means of surface-initiated polymerization. We thus show…
We develop thin films of blends of polystyrene (PS) with the thermoresponsive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) (PS/PNIPAM) and its diblock copolymer polystyrene-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PS/PS-b-PNIPAM) in different blend…
We construct the complete structural phase diagram of polymer adsorption at substrates with attractive stripe-like patterns in the parameter space spanned by the adsorption affinity of the stripes and temperature. Results were obtained by…
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.…
Nanocomposite films containing a high volume fraction (> 50vol%) of nanoparticles (NPs) in a polymer matrix are promising for their functionality and use as structural coatings, and also provide a unique platform to understand polymer…
Molecular design requires systematic and broadly applicable methods to extract structure-property relationships. The focus of this study is on learning thermodynamic properties from molecular-liquid simulations. The methodology relies on an…
Colloidal microgel particles such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) shrink reversibly in an aqueous medium due to the expulsion of water at a volume phase transition temperature, VPTT $\sim$33$^\circ$C. Romeo et al. [Adv. Mater. 2010,…
To overcome the inherent inefficiencies of traditional trial-and-error materials discovery, the scientific community is increasingly developing autonomous laboratories that integrate data-driven decision-making into closed-loop experimental…
Hierarchical polymer structures such as pNIPAM microgels have been extensively studied for their ability to undergo significant structural and physical transformations that can be controlled by external stimuli such as temperature, pH or…
High temperature polymer-based dielectric capacitors are crucial for application in electronic power systems. However, the storage performance of conventional dielectrics polymer dramatically deteriorates due to the thermal breakdown under…