Related papers: Conceptualizing flexible papers using cellulose mo…
Morphologies of adsorbed molecular films are of interest in a wide range of applications. To study the epitaxial growth of these systems in computer simulations requires access to long time and length scales and one typically resorts to…
Forced desorption of a semiflexible polymer chain on a solid substrate is theoretically investigated. The pulling force versus displacement is studied for different adsorption energy and persistence length P. It is found that the…
Cellular uptake of nanoplastics is instrumental in their environmental accumulation and transfer to humans through the food chain. Despite extensive studies using spherical plastic nanoparticles, the influence of the morphological…
Since the inception of the atomic force microscope AFM, dynamic methods have been very fruitful by establishing methods to quantify dissipative and conservative forces in the nanoscale and by providing a means to apply gentle forces to the…
The development of traction-force microscopy, in the past two decades, has created the unprecedented opportunity of performing direct mechanical measurements on living cells as they adhere or crawl on uniform or micro-patterned substrates.…
Molecular simulations of the forced unfolding and refolding of biomolecules or molecular complexes allow to gain important kinetic, structural and thermodynamic information about the folding process and the underlying energy landscape. In…
The folding vs. adsorption behaviour of a coarse-grained off-lattice protein model near an attractive surface is presented within the frame of a Multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations. In the polymer-surface model, the Lennard-Jones…
The nanocrystalline-amorphous textures are commonly observed in the coatings synthesized by energetic deposition.This work reports a theoretical study towards binary Cu-C phase separation.By performing a MD simulation using the LAMMPS…
Partitioning of (bio)materials in polymeric mixtures is a key phenomenon both in cellular environments, as well as in industrial applications. In cells, several macromolecules are suspended within different biomolecular phases. On the other…
Crumpling of a thin film leads to a unique stiff yet lightweight structure. The stiffness has been attributed to a complex interplay between four basic elements - smooth bends, sharp folds, localized points (developable cones), and…
The interaction between nano- or micro-sized particles and cell membranes is of crucial importance in many biological and biomedical applications such as drug and gene delivery to cells and tissues. During their cellular uptake, the…
Hybrid materials, containing a 2D filler embedded in a polymeric matrix, are an interesting platform for several applications, because of the variety of properties that the filler can impart to the polymer matrix when dispersed at the…
We study the adsorption of polymer chains on a fluctuating surface. Physical examples are provided by polymer adsorption at the rough interface between two non-miscible liquids, or on a membrane. In a mean-field approach, we find that the…
Deployable structures, essential across various engineering applications ranging from umbrellas to satellites, are evolving to include soft, morphable designs where geometry drives transformation. However, a major challenge for soft…
We have investigated both experimentally and theoretically the spreading behavior of latex particles deposited on solid substrates. These particles, which are composed of cross-linked polymer chains, have an intrinsic elastic modulus. We…
All materials enter or exit the cell nucleus through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), efficient transport devices that combine high selectivity and throughput. A central feature of this transport is the binding of cargo-carrying soluble…
Cellulose is one of the most versatile substances in the world. Its immense variety of applications was in recent years complemented by interesting nanotechnological applications. The fabrication of complex cellulose-based materials asks…
We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering…
Soft, amorphous solids such as tissues, foams, and emulsions are composed of deformable particles. However, the effect of single-particle deformability on the collective behavior of soft solids is still poorly understood. We perform…
A novel mathematical model for fiber-reinforced materials is proposed. It is based on a 1-dimensional beam model for the thin fiber structures, a flexible and general 3-dimensional elasticity model for the matrix and an overlapping domain…