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We propose that several mechanisms contribute to friction in a polymer melt adsorbed at a structured surface. The first one is the well known disentanglement of bulk polymer chains from the surface layer. However, if the surface is ideal at…
In recent years, ionic microgels have garnered much attention due to their unique properties, especially their stimulus-sensitive swelling behavior. The tunable response of these soft, permeable, compressible, charged colloidal particles is…
The process of adsorption on a planar wall of long-flexible polymer chains in the medium with quenched long-range correlated disorder is investigated. We focus on the case of correlations between defects or impurities that decay according…
The design of complex materials and the formation of specific patterns often arise from the properties of the individual building blocks. In this respect, colloidal systems offer a unique opportunity because nowadays they can be synthesized…
We experimentally study the formation of surface patterns in grafted hydrogel films of nanometer-to-micrometer thicknesses during imbibition-driven swelling followed by evaporation-driven shrinking. Creases are known to form at the hydrogel…
Particle surface chemistry and internal softness are two fundamental parameters in governing the mechanical properties of dense colloidal suspensions, dictating structure and flow, therefore of interest from materials fabrication to…
We systematically investigate the optical behaviors of an amorphous silicon solar cell based on a core-shell nanograting structure. The horizontally propagating Bloch waves and Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) waves lead to significant…
To explore dense packings of soft colloids, scattering experiments are ideal to access the structure factor. However, for soft microgels determination of the structure factor is difficult because of the low contrast of the polymer network…
In this paper we present a new one-pot synthesis method of poly(acrylate-co-acrylamide) superabsorbent polymer via partial alkaline hydrolysis of acrylamide using microwave irradiation. This method allows to hydrolysis, polymerization and…
The precise arrangement of different chemical moieties in a polymer determines its thermophysical properties. How the sequence of moieties impacts the properties of a polymer is an outstanding problem in polymer science. Herein, we address…
Superresolution microscopy has become a powerful tool to investigate the internal structure of complex colloidal and polymeric systems, such as microgels, at the nanometer scale. The ability to monitor microgels response to temperature…
Using video-microscopy imaging we demonstrate the existence of a short-ranged equilibrium attraction between heavy silica colloids diffusing on soft surfaces of cross-linked polymer gels. The inter-colloid potential can be tuned by changing…
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 study the structure and interfacial properties of model athermal mixtures of colloids and excluded volume polymers. The colloid particles are modeled as hard spheres whereas the polymer coils are modeled as chains formed from…
Self-assembly of polypeptides into fibrillar structures can be initiated by planar surfaces that interact favorably with certain residues. Using a coarse grained model, we systematically studied the folding and adsorption behavior of a…
We investigate the swelling and shrinking of L_beta lamellar gel phases composed of surfactant and fatty alcohol after contact with aqueous poly(ethylene-glycol) solutions. The height change $\Delta h(t)$ is diffusion-like with a swelling…
The evolution over time of the non-linear slip behavior of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer melt on a weakly adsorbing surface made of short non-entangled PDMS chains densely end-grafted to the surface of a fused silica prism has been…
We investigate the relaxation dynamics of photogenerated carriers in silicon nanowires consisting of a crystalline core and a surrounding amorphous shell, using femtosecond time-resolved differential reflectivity and transmission…
Generalized-ensemble simulations enable the study of complex adsorption scenarios of a coarse-grained model polymer near an attractive nanostring, representing an ultrathin nanowire. We perform canonical and microcanonical statistical…
Polaron formation plays a major role in determining the structural, electrical and chemical properties of ionic crystals. Using a combination of first principles calculations and scanning tunneling microscpoy/atomic force microscopy…