Related papers: Entanglement kinetics in polymer melts are chemica…
Traditional plastics demand a choice between durability (thermosets) and reprocessability (thermoplastics). Vitrimers are a recent class of polymer network combining both these qualities. Their increased cost of production can be offset by…
Self-mated hydrogel contacts show extremely small friction coefficients at low loads but a distinct velocity dependence. Here we combine mesoscopic simulations and experiments to test the polymer-relaxation hypothesis for this velocity…
The interaction of polymers with turbulent shear flows is examined. We focus on the structure of the elastic stress tensor, which is proportional to the polymer conformation tensor. We examine this object in turbulent flows of increasing…
We present a simple reaction kinetics model to describe the polymer synthesis used by Lusignan et al. (PRE, 60, 5657, 1999) to produce randomly branched polymers in the vulcanization class. Numerical solution of the rate equations gives…
We have investigated the viscosity and the plateau modulus of actin solutions with a magnetically driven rotating disc rheometer. For entangled solutions we observed a scaling of the plateau modulus versus concentration with a power of 7/5.…
Although 3D printing has the potential to transform manufacturing processes, the strength of printed parts often does not rival that of traditionally-manufactured parts. The fused-filament fabrication method involves melting a…
The reorientation dynamics of local tangent vectors of chains in isotropic amorphous melts containing semiflexible model polymers was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The reorientation is strongly influenced both by the local…
Polymer gels behave as soft viscoelastic solids and exhibit a generic nonlinear mechanical response characterized by pronounced stiffening prior to irreversible failure, most often through macroscopic fractures. Here, we aim at capturing…
The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of semiflexible polymers confined to two dimensions are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Three different scenarios are considered: The force-extension relation of…
Motivated by recent observations that non-concatenated ring polymers in their dense solution exhibit a glass-like dynamics, we propose a free volume description of the motion of such rings based on the notion of topological volume. We first…
The dynamic and static properties of a supercooled (non-entangled) polymer melt are investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The system is confined between two completely smooth and purely repulsive walls. The wall-to-wall…
Polymer gels are comprised of a three-dimensional, cross-linked network that can typically withstand the mechanical deformation associated with both swelling and de-swelling. Thus, gels can be designed with smart behaviors that require both…
Based on the random phase approximation, we develop a molecular theory of self-coacervation in zwitterionic polymer solutions. We show that the interplay between the volume interactions of the monomeric units and electrostatic correlations…
We study the rotational dynamics of a flexible polymer initially wrapped around a rigid rod and unwinding from it. This dynamics is of interest in several problems in biology and constitutes a fundamental instance of polymer relaxation from…
We investigate the linear viscoelasticity of polymer gels produced by the dispersion of gluten proteins in water:ethanol binary mixtures with various ethanol contents, from pure water to 60% v/v ethanol. We show that the complex…
Glassy polymers are central to engineering applications, yet their viscoelastic response over broad frequency and temperature ranges remains difficult to characterize. We extend non-affine deformation theory by incorporating a…
We define the local periodic linking number, LK, between two oriented closed or open chains in a system with three-dimensional periodic boundary conditions. The properties of LK indicate that it is an appropriate measure of entanglement…
The extensional rheology of dilute suspensions of spheres in viscoelastic or polymeric liquids is studied computationally. At low polymer concentration (c) and Deborah number (De), a wake of highly stretched polymers forms downstream of the…
We present a detailed study of the static and dynamic behavior of long semiflexible polymer chains in a melt. Starting from previously obtained fully equilibrated high molecular weight polymer melts [{\it Zhang et al.} ACS Macro Lett. 3,…
The non-linear response of entangled polymers to shear flow is complicated. Its current understanding is framed mainly as a rheological description in terms of the complex viscosity. However, the full picture requires an assessment of the…