Related papers: Effect of microstructure on polymer chain dynamics…
Results of broadband dielectric spectroscopy and rheological studies of poly(propylene glycol) + SiO${_2}$ nanocomposites are presented. They show that the dynamics in high-concentrated composite is determined by confinement and adsorption…
The emergence of spatially variable local dynamics, or dynamic heterogeneity, is common in multicomponent polymer systems. Although often attributed to differences in the intrinsic dynamics of each component, the molecular origin of their…
Structure and dynamics at soft-matter interfaces play an important role in nature and technical applications. Optical single-molecule investigations are non-invasive and capable to reveal heterogeneities at the nanoscale. In this work we…
In this study, two phase gas-shear-thinning liquid flow in a square microchannel is numerically investigated using the coupled level set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) methods. A systematic investigation is carried out to explore the…
Molecular dynamics using atomistic modeling is frequently used to unravel the mechanisms of macroion release from electrosprayed droplets. However, atomistic modeling is currently feasible for only the smallest window of droplet sizes…
The experimental literature on the motion of mesoscopic probe particles through polymer solutions is systematically reviewed. The primary focus is the study of diffusive motion of small probe particles. Comparison is made with measurements…
Fine manipulation of fluid flows at the microscale has a tremendous impact on mass transport phenomena of chemical and biological processes inside microfluidic platforms. Fluid mixing in the laminar flow regime at low Reynolds is poorly…
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.…
We report three-dimensional particle mechanics static calculations that predict the microstructure evolution during die-compaction of elastic spherical particles up to relative densities close to one. We employ a nonlocal contact…
In studies of the dynamic failure of brittle hydrogels, a bound has been placed on the process zone scale - the scale where material separation and ultimate failure occur. For the polyacrylamide hydrogel system under study, this bound is…
Polymer microgels exhibit intriguing macroscopic flow properties arising from their unique microscopic structure. Microgel colloids usually comprise a crosslinked polymer network with a radially decaying density profile, resulting in a…
For a few decades, Fluorescent Molecular Rotors have been commonly employed as local probes of microviscosity in complex materials. However, without proper calibration, relating microviscosity to a physical parameter is unclear, which…
We identify the sequence of microstructural changes that characterize the evolution of an attractive particulate gel under flow and discuss their implications on macroscopic rheology. Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) is used to monitor…
Hydrogels have had a profound impact in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and materials science as a whole. Due to the network architecture of these materials, imbibement with water often results in uniform swelling and…
The Rouse model can be regarded as the standard model to describe the dynamics of a short polymer chain under melt conditions. In this contribution, we explicitly check one of the fundamental assumptions of this model, namely that of a…
A combined experimental/theoretical method to simultaneously determine diffusivity and free-energy profiles of particles that penetrate into inhomogeneous hydrogel systems is presented. As the only input, arbitrarily normalized…
Control of the swelling, chemical functionalization, and adhesivity of hydrogels are finding new applications in a wide range of material systems. We investigate experimentally the effect of adsorbed particles on hydrogels on the depinning…
Graphene-based nanostructured systems and van-der-Waals heterostructures comprise a material class of growing technological and scientific importance. Joining materials with vastly different properties, polymer-graphene heterosystems…
When stressed sufficiently, solid materials yield and deform plastically via reorganization of microscopic constituents. Indeed, it is possible to alter the micro-structure of materials by judicious application of stress, an empirical pro-…
We explore the Mode I fracture toughness of a polymer gel containing a semi-infinite, growing crack. First, an expression is derived for the energy release rate within the linearized, small-strain setting. This expression reveals a crack…