Related papers: Semidilute Principle for Gels
We have studied the conformational and scaling behaviors of a flexible dendrimer immersed in athermal or good solvents. A self-consistent field theory combined with a pre-averaged excluded volume potential representing the two-body…
DNA bending on length scales shorter than a persistence length plays an integral role in the translation of genetic information from DNA to cellular function. Quantitative experimental studies of these biological systems have led to a…
This study employs molecular dynamics simulations to investigate droplet dynamics when a stationary droplet on a solid surface is struck by another droplet of similar size from above. The focus is on the jumping behavior of the merged…
Biopolymer gels such as fibrin and collagen networks are known to develop tensile axial stress when subject to torsion. This negative normal stress is opposite to the classical Poynting effect observed for most elastic solids including…
A theoretical model of electromigrative, diffusive and convectivetransport polymer-gel composites is presented. Bulk properties are derived from the standard electrokinetic model with an impenetrable charged sphere embedded in an…
The equilibrium partitioning of linear polymer chains into flexible polymer networks is governed by intricate entropic constraints arising from configurational degrees of freedom of both chains and network, yet a quantitative understanding…
We investigate the properties of a system of semi-diluted polymers in the presence of charged groups and counter-ions, by means of self-consistent field theory. We study a system of polyelectrolyte chains grafted to a similarly, as well as…
A conceptual difficulty in the Hooke's-law description of ideal Gaussian polymer-chain elasticity is sometimes apparent in analyses of experimental data or in physical models designed to simulate the behavior of biopolymers. The problem,…
We propose the quantitative mean-field theory of mechanical unfolding of a globule formed by long flexible homopolymer chain collapsed in poor solvent and subjected to extensional deformation. We demonstrate that depending on the degree of…
We consider the thermodynamics of a uniformly charged polyelectrolyte with harmonic bonds. For such a system there is at high temperatures an approximate scaling of global properties like the end-to-end distance and the interaction energy…
Swelling media (e.g. gels, tumors) are usually described by mechanical constitutive laws (e.g. Hooke or Darcy laws). However, constitutive relations of real swelling media are not well known. Here, we take an opposite route and consider a…
Biological systems commonly combine intrinsically out-of-equilibrium active components with passive polymeric inclusions to produce unique material properties. To explore these composite systems, idealized models - such as polymers in…
The gel point of end-linked model networks is determined from computer simulation data. It is shown that the difference between the true gel point conversion, $p_{\text{c}}$, and the ideal mean field prediction for the gel point,…
Using the language of the Flory chi parameter, we develop a theory that unifies the treatment of the single-chain structure and the solution thermodynamics of polymers in poor solvents. The structure of a globule and its melting…
In the technique of microrheology, macroscopic rheological parameters as well as information about local structure are deduced from the behavior of microscopic probe particles under thermal or active forcing. Microrheology requires…
The scaling of the bond-bond correlation function $C(s)$ along linear polymer chains is investigated with respect to the curvilinear distance, $s$, along the flexible chain and the monomer density, $\rho$, via Monte Carlo and molecular…
We generalize a recently investigated lattice model of semiflexible polymers formed under equilibrium polymerization in a solution and conduct a comprehensive investigation of its melting properties. The model is characterized by six…
When a gel absorbs solvent from surrounding, stress field is created in the gel, and this causes complex dynamics of the swelling behavior. Here we study this effect for disk-shaped gel by rigorously solving the diffusio-mechanical coupling…
Strongly correlated amorphous solids are a class of glass-formers whose inter-particle potential admits an approximate inverse power-law form in a relevant range of inter-particle distances. We study the steady-state plastic flow of such…
The diffusion of small solvent molecules in glassy polymers may take on a variety of different forms. Fickian, anomalous, Case II, and super Case II diffusion have all been observed, and theoretical models exist that describe each specific…