Related papers: Polymeric Solvents Control Swelling-Induced Surfac…
The properties of semidilute polymer solutions are investigated at equilibrium and under shear flow by mesoscale simulations, which combine molecular dynamics simulations and the multiparticle collision dynamics approach. In semidilute…
The surface tension of interacting polymers in a good solvent is calculated theoretically and by computer simulations for a planar wall geometry and for the insertion of a single colloidal hard-sphere. This is achieved for the planar wall…
We study the swelling and shrinking behavior of core-shell microgels adsorbed on silicon wafers. In these systems, the core is made of cross-linked poly(N isopropylmethacrylamide) and the shell consists of cross linked poly(N-n…
Polymer gels such as jellies and soft contact lenses are soft solids consisting of three-dimensional polymer networks swollen with a large amount of solvent. For approximately 80 years, the swelling of polymer gels has been described using…
Slippery covalently attached liquid surfaces (SCALS) are a family of nanothin polymer layers with remarkably low static droplet friction, characterised by a low contact angle hysteresis (CAH$< 5 \deg$), which makes them ideally suited to…
We study swelling and structural properties of ionic microgel suspensions within a comprehensive coarse-grained model that combines the polymeric and colloidal natures of microgels as permeable, compressible, charged spheres governed by…
We propose a theory based on non-equilibrium thermodynamics to describe the mechanical behavior of an active polymer gel created by the inclusion of molecular motors in its solvent. When activated, these motors attach to the chains of the…
We present an experimentally guided, multi-phase, multi-species polyelectrolyte gel model to make quantitative predictions on the electro-chemical properties of articular cartilage. The mixture theory consists of two different types of…
Motivated by the buckling of glassy crusts formed on evaporating droplets of polymer and colloid solutions, we numerically model the deformation and buckling of spherical elastic caps controlled by varying the volume between the shell and…
Glassy polymer melts such as the plastics used in pipes, structural materials, and medical devices are ubiquitous in daily life. They accumulate damage over time due to their use, which limits their functionalities and demands periodic…
Gels made of telechelic polymers connected by reversible crosslinkers are a versatile design platform for biocompatible viscoelastic materials. Their linear response to a step strain displays a fast, near-exponential relaxation when using…
Dynamics of a polymer chain in solution gets significantly affected by the temperature and the frictional forces arising due to solvent viscosity. Here, using an explicit solvent framework for polymer simulation with the liberty to tune the…
We make time resolved velocity measurements of steel spheres in free fall through liquid using a continuous ultrasound technique. We explore two different ways to induce large changes in drag on the spheres: 1) a small quantity of…
A polymer network can imbibe water, forming an aggregate called hydrogel, and undergo large and inhomogeneous deformation with external mechanical constraint. Due to the large deformation, nonlinearity plays a crucial role, which also…
When sheared, most elastic solids such as metals, rubbers and polymer hydrogels dilate in the direction perpendicular to the shear plane. This well-known behaviour known as the Poynting effect is characterized by a positive normal stress.…
Motivated by the motion of nematode sperm cells, we present a model for the motion of an adhesive gel on a solid substrate. The gel polymerizes at the leading edge and depolymerizes at the rear. The motion results from a competition between…
Swelling is a volumetric-growth process in which a porous material expands by spontaneous imbibition of additional pore fluid. Swelling is distinct from other growth processes in that it is inherently poromechanical: Local expansion of the…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the conformations of a single polymer chain, represented by the Kremer-Grest bead-spring model, in a solution with a Lennard-Jones liquid as the solvent when the interaction strength…
Macrocellular silicone polymers are obtained after solidification of the continuous phase of a PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) emulsion, which contains PEG (polyethylene glycol) drops of sub-millimetric dimensions. Coalescence of the liquid…
A fundamental paradigm in polymer physics is that macromolecular conformations in equilibrium can be described by universal scaling laws, being key for structure, dynamics, and function of soft (biological) matter and in the materials…