Related papers: Modelling realistic microgels in an explicit solve…
The present work emphasizes the relevance of low-field NMR relaxometry to investigate colloid-polymer hydrogels by probing water dynamics across a wide range of formulations between $\rm 10^{\circ}C$ and $\rm 80^{\circ}C$. By examining the…
Dynamics of a polymer chain in solution gets significantly affected by the temperature and the frictional forces arising due to solvent viscosity. Here, using an explicit solvent framework for polymer simulation with the liberty to tune the…
The influence of shape fluctuations on deformable thermosensitive microgels in aqueous solution is investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and depolarized dynamic light scattering (DDLS). The systems under study consist of a solid…
The formation of colloidal gels is strongly dependent on the volume fraction of the system and the strength of the interactions between the colloids. Here we explore very dilute solutions by the means of numerical simulations, and show…
Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) undergo a sharp solubility transition from low temperature solvated phases to coacervates at elevated temperatures, driven by the increased strength of hydrophobic interactions at higher temperatures. The…
We propose and study a simplified model for the surface and bulk structures of crosslinked polymer gels, into which voids are introduced through templating by surfactant micelles. Such systems were recently studied by Atomic Force…
Modeling the couplings between active particles often neglects the possible many-body effects that control the propulsion mechanism. Accounting for such effects requires the explicit modeling of the molecular details at the origin of…
We study the self-assembly of colloidal microgel particles at a quasi-two-dimensional air-water interface of a drying droplet. Using bright-field microscopy, we demonstrate that increasing particle elasticity drives interfacial organization…
Soft matter materials and polymers are widely used in the controlled delivery of drugs. Simulation and modeling provide insight at the atomic scale enabling a level of control unavailable to experiments. We present a workflow protocol for…
Polyelectrolyte (PE) hydrogels can dynamically respond to external stimuli, such as changes in pH and temperature, which benefits their use for smart materials and nanodevices with tunable properties. We investigate equilibrium…
We present results from extensive molecular dynamics simulations of collapse transitions of hydrophobic polymers in explicit water focused on understanding effects of lengthscale of the hydrophobic surface and of attractive interactions on…
We use molecular dynamics simulations of a simple model to show that dispersions of slightly elongated colloidal particles with long-range dipolar interactions, like ferrofluids, can form a physical (reversible) gel at low volume fractions.…
The experimentally observed swelling and collapse response of weakly charged polymers to the addition of specific salts displays quite convoluted behavior that is not easy to categorize. Here we use a minimalistic implicit solvent /…
The complexation of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) and thermoresponsive microgels is widely exploited for applications, but a microscopic description of the mechanisms governing the spatial organization of the NPs is still lacking. Combining…
This mini-review synthesizes our understanding of the equilibrium behavior of particle models with short-range attractive and long-range repulsive (SALR) interactions. These models, which can form stable periodic microphases, aim to…
From microactuators to biological tissues, non-porous materials with the ability to strongly expand when in contact with a solvent are ubiquitous. Consequently, the swelling of polymer systems such as hydrogel has received recently much…
The "melting" of self-formed rigid structures made of a small number of interacting classical particles confined in an irregular two-dimensional space is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that the interplay of…
The influence of monomer-monomer interactions on the scaling exponents and shape characteristics of a single polymer chain in a selective solvent is investigated using Langevin dynamics simulations. By systematically increasing the…
Hydrophobic interactions are central to biological self-assembly and soft matter organization, yet their microscopic origins remain debated. A key hallmark is the strengthening of attraction between hydrophobic solutes with increasing…
We present a pedagogical review of the swelling thermodynamics and phase transitions of polymer gels. In particular, we discuss how features of the volume phase transition of the gel's osmotic equilibrium is analogous to other transitions…