Related papers: Phase coexistence in thermo-responsive PNIPAM hydr…
We present an integrated experimental and quantitative theoretical study of the mechanics of self-crosslinked, neutral, repulsive pNIPAM microgel suspensions over concentration (c) range spanning the fluid, glassy and putative "soft jammed"…
We provide experimental and numerical evidence of a new class of soft nanocolloids: star-like microgels with thermoresponsive character. This is achieved by using the standard precipitation polymerization synthesis of…
We study the dependence of the pair-correlation function, $g(r)$, and particle mobility on packing fraction in a dense three-dimensional packing of soft colloids made of poly N-isopropyl acrylamide (pNIPAM), a thermo-sensitive gel. We find…
Coalescence of sessile polymeric fluid drops on a partially wettable substrate exhibits a transition from inertial to viscoelastic regime at concentration ratio $c/c^* \sim 1$. Our findings unveil that the temporal evolution of the growing…
The dynamics of polypropylene glycol, both neat and attached to silica nanoparticles, were investigated using elastic neutron backscattering and dielectric spectroscopy. The mean square displacement measured by the former is suppressed by…
The stability of a $\beta$-sheeted conformation and its transition into a random coil are studied with a 2D lattice biopolymer model. At low temperature and low external force, the polymer folds back and forth on itself and forms a…
The viscoelastic properties of thin polymeric films represent a central issue, especially for nanotechnological applications. In particular, it is highly relevant the dependence of viscoelasticity on the temperature. For polystyrene it is…
The microscopic model of semi-crystalline polymer in high-elastic state is proposed. The model is based on the assumption that, below the melting temperature, the semi-crystalline polymer comprises crystal nuclei connected by stretched…
In the automotive industry, thermoplastic polymers are used for a significant number of interior and exterior parts. These components have to pass all underlying crash and safety relevant tests, where a proper performance is desired in the…
The mechanical response of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and polyampholyte (PA) chains is vital for understanding their biological functions and designing functional materials. We investigate the force-extension behavior of a PA…
We use the strongly temperature-dependent ionic mobility in polymer electrolytes to 'freeze in' specific ionic charge environments around a nanowire using a local wrap-gate geometry. This enables us to set both the threshold voltage for a…
Polyampholytes (PAs) are heteropolymers with long range Coulomb interactions. Unlike polymers with short range forces, PA energy levels have non-vanishing correlations and are thus very different from the Random Energy Model (REM).…
We report molecular dynamics simulations of a hydrophobic polymer-chain in aqueous solution between $260 {K}$ and $420 {K}$ at pressures of $1 {bar}$, $3000 {bar}$, and $4500 {bar}$. The simulations reveal a hydrophobically collapsed state…
Motivated by single molecule experiments on biopolymers we explore equilibrium morphologies and force-extension behavior of copolymers with hydrophobic segments using Langevin dynamics simulations. We find that the interplay between…
Fluid polyamorphism, the existence of multiple amorphous fluid states in a single-component system, has been observed or predicted in a variety of substances. A remarkable example of this phenomenon is the fluid-fluid phase transition in…
In two dimensions polymer collapse has been shown to be complex with multiple low temperature states and multi-critical points. Recently, strong numerical evidence has been provided for a long-standing prediction of universal scaling of…
The recently developed Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) is investigated for a wide range of model parameters including the parameter m representing the chain length and the thermodynamic temperature T and…
We report extensive simulation studies of phase behaviour in single component systems of particles interacting via a core-softened interparticle potential. Two recently proposed examples of such potentials are considered; one in which the…
We investigate non-equilibrium phase coexistence associated with a first-order phase transition by numerically studying a one-dimensional Hamiltonian-Potts model with fractional spatial derivatives. The fractional derivative is introduced…
We use complete enumeration and Monte Carlo techniques to study self--avoiding walks with random nearest--neighbor interactions described by $v_0q_iq_j$, where $q_i=\pm1$ is a quenched sequence of ``charges'' on the chain. For equal numbers…