Related papers: Selective molecular transport in thermo-responsive…
Polymer materials with low water uptake exhibit a highly heterogeneous interior, characterized by water clusters in the form of nanodroplets and nanochannels. Here, based on our recent insights from computer simulations, we argue that water…
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.…
Thermoresponsive polymer architectures have become integral building blocks of 'smart' functional materials in modern applications. For a large range of developments, e.g., for drug delivery or nanocatalytic carrier systems, the selective…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a synthetic polymer that is widely studied for its thermoresponsive character. However, recent works also reported evidence of a low temperature (protein-like) dynamical transition around 225 K in…
A central quantity in the design of functional hydrogels used as nanocarrier systems, for instance for drug delivery or adaptive nanocatalysis, is the partition ratio, which quantifies the uptake of a molecular substance by the polymer…
The diffusion of small molecular penetrants through polymeric materials represents an important fundamental problem, relevant to the design of materials for applications such as coatings and membranes. Polymer networks hold promise in these…
We investigate a model of chaperone-assisted polymer translocation through a nanopore in a membrane. Translocation is driven by irreversible random sequential absorption of chaperone proteins that bind to the polymer on one side of the…
We investigate the dynamics of water confined in soft ionic nano-assemblies, an issue critical for a general understanding of the multi-scale structure-function interplay in advanced materials. We focus in particular on hydrated…
Particles diffusing near interfaces face anisotropic resistance to motion due to hydrodynamic interactions. While this has been extensively studied near \textit{hard} interfaces since the works of Lorentz and Brenner, our understanding of…
Diffusive transport of small molecules within the internal structures of biological and synthetic material systems is complex because the crowded environment presents chemical and physical barriers to mobility. We explored this mobility…
Thermoresponsive hydrogels have been studied intensively for creating smart drug carriers and controlled drug delivery. Understanding the drug release kinetics and corresponding transport mechanisms of nanoparticles (NPs) in a…
The uptake and sorption of charged molecules by responsive polymer membranes and hydrogels in aqueous solutions is of key importance for the development of soft functional materials. Here we investigate the partitioning of simple monoatomic…
Microgel suspensions of Interpenetrated Polymer Network (IPN) of PNIPAM and PAAc in D$_2$O, have been investigated through dynamic light scattering as a function of temperature, pH and concentration across the Volume Phase Transition (VPT).…
The permeability is one of the most fundamental transport properties in soft matter physics, material engineering, and nanofluidics. Here we report by means of Langevin simulations of ideal penetrants in a nanoscale membrane made of a fixed…
The long debated protein dynamical transition was recently found also in non-biological macromolecules, such as poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) microgels. Here, by using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we report a description…
Anion exchange membranes are used in alkaline fuel cells and offer a promising alternative to the more expensive proton exchange membrane fuel cells. However, hydroxide ion conductivity in anion exchange membranes is low, and the quest for…
Polymer translocation is a promising strategy for the next-generation DNA sequencing technologies. The use of biological and synthetic nano-pores, however, still suffers from serious drawbacks. In particular, the width of the membrane layer…
The transport of polymers with folded configurations across membrane pores is investigated theoretically by analyzing simple discrete stochastic models. The translocation dynamics is viewed as a sequence of two events: motion of the folded…
Specific molecular interactions underlie unexpected and useful phenomena in nanofluidic systems, but require descriptions that go beyond traditional macroscopic hydrodynamics. In this letter, we demonstrate how equilibrium molecular…
Responsive microgels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) exhibit peculiar behaviours due to the competition between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions of the constituent networks. The interpenetration of poly-acrilic…