Related papers: Entropic Cohesion in Vitrimers
Recent experimental results suggest that the E. coli chromosome feels a self-attracting interaction of osmotic origin, and is condensed in foci by bridging interactions. Motivated by these findings, we explore a generic modeling framework…
We present results from extensive molecular dynamics simulations of collapse transitions of hydrophobic polymers in explicit water focused on understanding effects of lengthscale of the hydrophobic surface and of attractive interactions on…
We present molecular dynamics simulations of a simple model for polymer melts with intramolecular barriers. We investigate structural relaxation as a function of the barrier strength. Dynamic correlators can be consistently analyzed within…
In a number of experimental situations, single polymer molecules can be suspended in a vacuum. Here collisions between such molecules are considered. The limit of high collision velocity is investigated numerically for a variety of…
The forces that mixtures of motorized and passive crosslinking proteins collectively generate between cytoskeletal filaments within our cells are the key drivers of active cellular mechanics. Despite their importance, a unified theory to…
Recent investigations on the coalescence of polymeric droplets on a solid substrate have reported strong disagreements; the heart of the issue is whether coalescence of polymeric drops is similar to that of Newtonian fluid and is…
Using a transfer matrix technique, we calculate the entropy of polydisperse chains placed on a one-dimensional lattice, as a function of the density of internal and endpoint monomers. The polydispersivity is determined considering different…
Indentation is a common experimental technique to study the mechanics of polymeric materials. The main advantage of using indentation is because this provides a direct correlation between the microstructure and the small-scale mechanical…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the microscopic and macroscopic response of model polymer networks to uniaxial elongations. By studying networks with strands lengths ranging from $N_s=20$ to 200 we cover the full…
In active materials, uncoordinated internal stresses lead to emergent long-range flows. An understanding of how the behavior of active materials depends on mesoscopic (hydrodynamic) parameters is developing, but there remains a gap in…
Molecular dynamics simulations confirm recent extensional flow experiments showing ring polymer melts exhibit strong extension-rate thickening of the viscosity at Weissenberg numbers $Wi<<1$. Thickening coincides with the extreme elongation…
We examine the thermally-induced fracture of an unstrained polymer chain of discrete segments coupled by an anharmonic potential by means of Molecular Dynamics simulation with a Langevin thermostat. Cases of both under- and over-damped…
Dense rubbery networks are highly entangled polymer systems, with significant topological restrictions for the mobility of neighbouring chains and crosslinks preventing the reptation constraint release. In a mean field approach,…
Phase separation within polymer networks plays a central role in shaping the structure and mechanics of both synthetic materials and living cells, including the formation of biomolecular condensates within cytoskeletal networks. Previous…
Viscosity is a key property of cell membranes that controls mobility of embedded proteins and membrane remodeling. Measuring it is challenging because existing approaches involve complex experimental designs and/or models, and the…
Active matter agents consume internal energy or extract energy from the environment for locomotion and force generation. Already rather generic models, such as ensembles of active Brownian particles, exhibit phenomena, which are absent at…
We experimentally investigate the effects of polymer additives on the collective dynamics of swarming Serratia marcescens in quasi two-dimensional (2D) liquid films. We find that even minute amounts of polymers (< 20 ppm) can significantly…
Ring polymers are characterized by topology-specific entanglements called threadings. In the limit of large rings, it is conjectured that a "topological glass" should emerge due to the proliferation of threadings. In this study, we used…
We consider a three-dimensional network of aqueous droplets joined by single lipid bilayers to form a cohesive, tissue-like material. The droplets in these networks can be programmed to have distinct osmolarities so that osmotic gradients…
Self-assembled linear structures like giant cylindrical micelles or discotic molecules in solution stacked in flexible columns are systems reminiscent of polydisperse polymer solutions.These supramolecular polymers have an equilibrium…