Related papers: Ultimately deformed double-network gels possess po…
Networks of elastic beams can deform either by stretching or bending of their members. The primary mode of deformation (bending or stretching) crucially depends on the specific details of the network architecture. In order to shed light on…
Since the invention of polymer networks in the 19th century (e.g., crosslinked natural rubber by Goodyear), it has been a dogma that stiffer networks are less stretchable, a trade-off inherent to the molecular nature of polymer network…
Plastic deformation of metals involves the complex evolution of dislocations forming strongly connected dislocation networks. These dislocation networks are based on dislocation reactions, which can form junctions during the interactions of…
The validity of the affine assumption in model flexible polymer networks is explored. To this end, the displacements of fluorescent tracer beads embedded in polyacrylamide gels are quantified by confocal microscopy under shear deformation,…
We investigate theoretically the effect of polymer tension on the collective behavior of reversibly binding cross-links. For this purpose, we employ a model of two weakly bending wormlike chains aligned in parallel by a tensile force, with…
Recently developed linker-mediated vitrimers based on metathesis of dioxaborolanes with various commercially available polymers have shown both good processability and outstanding performance, such as mechanical, thermal, and chemical…
The dynamic properties of a model transient network have been studied by dynamic light scattering. The network is formed by microemulsion droplets linked by telechelic polymers (modified hydrophilic polymers with two grafted hydrophobic…
We study the structure and dynamics of a transient network composed of droplets of microemulsion connected by telechelic polymers. The polymer induces a bridging attraction between droplets without changing their shape. A viscoelastic…
This paper develops a damage model for unfilled cross-linked rubbers based on the concept of scission of polymer chains. The model is built up on the well-known Gent elastic potential complemented by a kinetic equation describing effects of…
We study the spontaneous out-of-plane bending of a planar untwisted ribbon composed of nematic polymer networks activated by a change in temperature. Our theory accounts for both stretching and bending energies, which compete to establish…
The mechanical properties of a polymeric network containing both crosslinks and sliplinks (entanglements) are studied using a multi-chain Brownian dynamics simulation. We coarse-grain at the level of chain segments connecting consecutive…
We model the mechanics of associating trivalent dendrimer network glasses with a focus on their energy dissipation properties. Various combinations of sticky bond (SB) strength and kinetics are employed. The toughness (work-to-fracture) of…
Recent experiments have established negative energetic elasticity, the negative contribution of energy to the elastic modulus, as a universal property of polymer gels. To reveal the microscopic origin of this phenomenon, Shirai and…
The dynamics of a single chain tethered to an interface and in contact with a cross-linked network is examined numerically. When the network is put in contact with the tethered chain, the chain moves with dynamics that are highly…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the nonlinear elasticity of in vitro networks of the biopolymer actin is dramatically altered in the presence of a flexible cross-linker such as the abundant cytoskeletal protein filamin. The basic…
The entropy of a polymer confined in a curved surface and the elastic free energy of a membrane consisting of polymers are obtained by scaling analysis. It is found that the elastic free energy of the membrane has the form of the in-plane…
In this letter, we demonstrate that oscillations and excitable behavior can be imparted to a chemical network by coupling the network to an active hydrogel. We discuss two mechanisms by which the mechanical response of the gel to the…
In the first part of the paper we show that the constraining potentials introduced to mimic entanglement effects in Edwards' tube model and Flory's constrained junction model are diagonal in the generalized Rouse modes of the corresponding…
We study the unfolding of a single polymer chain due to an external force. We use a simplified model which allows to perform all calculations in closed form without assuming a Boltzmann-Gibbs form for the equilibrium distribution.…
Using Brownian dynamics simulations we study gel-forming colloid-polymer mixtures. The focus of this article lies on the differences of dense and dilute gel networks in terms of structure formation both on a local and a global level. We…