Related papers: Hierarchical excluded volume screening in solution…
The rheology of molecular brushes remains challenging to control due to the multiple length scales and relaxation processes involved and the lack of direct observation of molecular conformation during flow. We use molecular dynamics…
Bottle brushes are polymeric macromolecules made of a linear polymeric backbone grafted with side chains. The choice of the grafting density {\sigma}g, the length ns the grafted side chains and their chemical nature fully determines the…
The role of solvent quality in determining the universal material properties of dilute polymer solutions undergoing steady simple shear flow is examined. A bead-spring chain representation of the polymer molecule is used, and the influence…
We report a simulation study for bottle-brush polymers grafted on a rigid backbone. Using a standard coarse-grained bead-spring model extensive molecular dynamics simulations for such macromolecules under good solvent conditions are…
We detail the application of bounding volume hierarchies to accelerate second-virial evaluations for arbitrary complex particles interacting through hard and soft finite-range potentials. This procedure, based on the construction of…
The properties of semidilute polymer solutions are investigated at equilibrium and under shear flow by mesoscale simulations, which combine molecular dynamics simulations and the multiparticle collision dynamics approach. In semidilute…
Shear responsive surfaces offer potential advances in a number of applications. Surface functionalisation using polymer brushes is one route to such properties, particularly in the case of entangled polymers. We report on neutron…
Block copolymer self-assembly is a fundamental process in which incompatible blocks spontaneously form organized microstructures with broad practical applications. Classical understanding is that the domain spacing is limited by the contour…
We study structural properties of a ring polymeric melt confined in a film in comparison to a linear counterpart using molecular dynamics simulations. Local structure orderings of ring and linear polymers in the vicinity of the surface are…
The effect of excluded volume interactions on the structure of a polymer in shear flow is investigated by Brownian Dynamics simulations for chains with size $30\leq N\leq 300$. The main results concern the structure factor $S({\bf q})$ of…
Microfluidic channels are integral to biomedical technology and process engineering, offering versatility in handling fluids with complex properties, often a combination of viscous and elastic attributes. Despite significant advancements in…
Understanding how topological constraints affect the dynamics of polymers in solution is at the basis of any polymer theory and it is particularly needed for melts of rings. These polymers fold as crumpled and space-filling objects and,…
Polymer brushes normally swell in a good solvent and collapse in a poor solvent. An abnormal response of polymer brushes, so-called co-nonsolvency, is the phenomenon where the brush counter-intuitively collapses in a good solvent mixture.…
As an example for the interplay of structure, dynamics, and phase behavior of macromolecular systems, this article focuses on the problem of bottle-brush polymers with either rigid or flexible backbones. On a polymer with chain length…
Mixture quality plays a crucial role in the physical properties of multi-component immiscible polymer mixtures including nanocomposites and polymer blends. Such complex mixtures are often characterized by hierarchical internal structures,…
We study the effect of polydispersity on the structure of polymer brushes by analytical theory, a numerical self-consistent field approach, and Monte Carlo simulations. The polydispersity is represented by the Schulz-Zimm chain-length…
Extensive Monte Carlo results are presented for a lattice model of a bottle-brush polymer under good solvent or Theta solvent conditions. Varying the side chain length, backbone length, and the grafting density for a rigid straight…
Extensional rheometry and Brownian Dynamics simulations of flexible polymer solutions confirm predictions based on blob concepts that coil--stretch hysteresis in extensional flows increases with concentration, reaching a maximum at the…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model of flexible macromolecules tethered with one end to the surface of a cylindrical pore are presented. Chain length $N$ and grafting density $\sigma$ are varied over a wide…
Polymer brushes are attractive as surface coatings for a wide range of applications, from fundamental research to everyday life, and also play important roles in biological systems. How colloids (e.g., functional nanoparticles, proteins,…