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Random packings of granular chains are presented as a model polymer system to investigate the contribution of entanglements to strain-stiffening in the absence of Brownian motion. The chain packings are sheared in triaxial compression…
The linear viscoelastic response of single semiflexible polymer chains in the infinite-dilution limit is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations of coarse-grained bead-spring chains. The springs obey the FENE-Fraenkel force law, a…
Dielectric elastomers (DEs) that couple deformation and electrostatics have the potential for use in soft sensors and actuators with applications ranging from robotic, biomedical, energy, aerospace and automotive technologies. However,…
We present a systematic statistical mechanical analysis of the conformational properties of a stiff polyelectrolyte chain with intrachain attractions that are due to counterion correlations. We show that the mean-field solution corresponds…
The elastic properties of a self-assembled bilayer membrane are studied using the self-consistent field theory, applied to a model system composed of flexible amphiphilic chains dissolved in hydrophilic polymeric solvents. Examining the…
We study the entropic force due to a fluctuating semiflexible polymer that is grafted from one end and confined by a rigid and rough wall from the other end. We show how roughness of the wall modifies the entropic force. In addition to the…
Temperature-sensitive hydrogels based on polymers such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) undergo a volume phase transition in response to changes in temperature. During this transition, distinct changes in both thermal and mechanical…
Magnetic composite materials i.e. elastomers, polymer gels, or polymer solutions with embedded magnetic nanoparticles are useful for many technical and bio-medical applications. However, the microscopic details of the coupling mechanisms…
An adhesively stressed thin film of a soft hydrogel confined between two rigid flat substrates auto-roughens with its dominant wavelength exhibiting pronounced dependence on the film thickness (H). A linear stability analysis confirmed that…
In this study, we propose a theoretical framework to investigate the interactions between flexible polymer chains, specifically polyelectrolytes (PEs). By calculating the system's free energy while considering position-dependent mutual…
The method of many body Green's functions is used to derive algebraic expressions for the different elastic and thermodynamical quantities such as the free energy, internal energy, entropy, heat capacity, elastic constants (adiabatic and…
We study the dynamics of a single polymer subject to thermal fluctuations in a linear shear flow. The polymer is modeled as a finitely extendable nonlinear elastic FENE dumbbell. Both orientation and elongation dynamics are investigated…
The pyroresistive response of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) has attracted much interest because of its potential applications in many electronic devices requiring a significant responsiveness to changes in external physical…
We report evidence of irregular unsteady flow of two-dimensional polymer solutions in the absence of inertia in cross-slot geometry using numerical simulations of Oldroyd-B model. By exploring the transition to time-dependent flow versus…
Synthetic polymers have a distribution of chain lengths which can be characterized by dispersity, D. Macroscopic properties of polymers are influenced by chain mobility in the melt and manipulating D can significantly impact these…
Recent developments of microscopic mechanical experiments allow the manipulation of individual polymer molecules in two main ways: \textit{uniform} stretching by external forces and \textit{non-uniform} stretching by external fields. Many…
We study two cross-linked polymer systems in the strong stretching regime. The first consists of two polymers sharing one endpoint, with the other two endpoints coupled by a harmonic potential. Within the weakly bending approximation, we…
When the local intrinsic stiffness of a polymer chain varies over a wide range, one can observe both a crossover from rigid-rod-like behavior to (almost) Gaussian random coils and a further crossover towards self-avoiding walks in good…
The mechanical properties of a disordered heterogeneous medium depend, in general, on a complex interplay between multiple length scales. Connecting local interactions to macroscopic observables, such as stiffness or fracture, is thus…
We report on the linear viscoelastic properties of mixtures comprising multiarm star (as model soft colloids) and long linear chain homopolymers in a good solvent. In contrast to earlier works, we investigated symmetric mixtures (with a…