Related papers: Modelling thermoresponsive polymer brush by mesosc…
We describe a microscope-based optical setup that allows us to perform space-and time-resolved measurements of the spectral reflectance of transparent substrates coated with ultrathin films. This technique is applied to investigate the…
We probe, using the Surface Forces Apparatus, the thermal response of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes of various grafting densities, grown from plasma-activated mica by means of surface-initiated polymerization. We thus show…
We describe the design of micropatterned surfaces for single cell studies, based on thermoresponsive polymer brushes. We show that brushes made of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) grafted at high surface density display excellent protein and…
Brush-like structures emerge from stretching of long polymer chains, densely grafted on to the surface of an impermeable substrate. They arise due to the competition between conformational entropic elasticity of polymer chains and excluded…
Molecular dynamics simulations of a short-chain polymer melt between two brush-covered surfaces under shear have been performed. The end-grafted polymers which constitute the brush have the same chemical properties as the free chains in the…
Shear responsive surfaces offer potential advances in a number of applications. Surface functionalisation using polymer brushes is one route to such properties, particularly in the case of entangled polymers. We report on neutron…
The application of a polymer brush in sensing, actuation, self-folding, among others acutely depends on the tuneable bending of a brush-grafted substrate caused by the stress in the brush. However, the stress in a stimuli-responsive brush…
A comparative simulation study of polymer brushes formed by grafting at a planar surface either flexible linear polymers (chain length $N_L$) or (non-catenated) ring polymers (chain length $N_R=2 N_L$) is presented. Two distinct off-lattice…
Obtaining a rigorous and reliable method for linking computer simulations of polymer blends and composites at different length scales of interest is a highly desirable goal in soft matter physics. In this paper a multiscale modeling…
The conformational behavior of a coarse-grained finite polymer chain near an attractive spherical surface was investigated by means of multicanonical Monte Carlo computer simulations. In a detailed analysis of canonical equilibrium data…
We examine the phase transition of polymer adsorption as well as the underlying kinetics of polymer binding from dilute solutions on a structureless solid surface. The emphasis is put on the properties of regular multiblock copolymers,…
We study the stress distribution in a polymer brush material over a range of graft densities using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and theory. Flexible polymer chains are treated as beads connected by nonlinear springs governed by a…
We demonstrate that hierarchical backmapping strategies incorporating generic blob-based models can equilibrate melts of high-molecular-weight polymers, described with chemically specific, atomistic, models. The central idea behind these…
We develop a strong stretching approximation for a polymer brush made of self-avoiding polymer chains. The density profile of the brush and the distribution of the end monomer positions in stretching direction are computed and compared with…
A coarse grained model for flexible polymers end-grafted to repulsive spherical nanoparticles is studied for various chain lengths and grafting densities under good solvent conditions, by Molecular Dynamics methods and density functional…
From glycosylated cell surfaces to sterically stabilized liposomes, polymers attached to membranes attract biological and therapeutic interest. Can the scaling laws of polymer "brushes" describe the physical properties of these coats? We…
A brief review of modeling and simulation methods for a study of polymers at interfaces is provided. When studying truly multiscale problems as provided by realistic polymer systems, coarse graining is practically unavoidable. In this…
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 study the effect of polydispersity on the structure of polymer brushes by analytical theory, a numerical self-consistent field approach, and Monte Carlo simulations. The polydispersity is represented by the Schulz-Zimm chain-length…
Large scale Monte Carlo simulations of dense layers of grafted polymer chains in good solvent conditions are used to explore the relaxation of a polymer brush. Monomer displacements are analyzed for the directions parallel and perpendicular…