Related papers: Controlling microgel morphology and swelling behav…
Nitrogen represents an archetypal example of material exhibiting a pressure driven transformation from molecular to polymeric state. Detailed investigations of such transformations are challenging because of a large kinetic barrier between…
Conformational transitions of flexible molecules, especially those driven by hydrophobic effects, tend to be hindered by desolvation barriers. For such transitions, it is thus important to characterize and understand the interplay between…
Nanostructured polymer-metal oxide composites are a current research area of great importance due to its highlight applications in sensors, optics, catalysts and drug delivery. Particularly the use of thermoresponsive polymers gives more…
Temperature-responsive polymeric micelles have great potential in drug delivery, enhancing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing systemic toxicity. This study investigates the self-assembly of poly(ethylene…
Hypothesis: While the mechanical disruption of microscopic structures in complex fluids by large shear flows has been studied extensively, the effects of applied strains on the dielectric properties of macromolecular aggregates has received…
We investigate a lattice model of polymers where the nearest-neighbour monomer-monomer interaction strengths differ according to whether the local configurations have so-called ``hydrogen-like'' formations or not. If the interaction…
Diblock copolymers by virtue of the chemical dissimilarity between the constituting blocks exhibit microphase separation in the melt state. The phase separated melt can successfully be exploited to control the morphology of the final semi…
Dielectric spectroscopy measurements over a broad range of temperature and pressure were carried out on poly(oxybutylene) (POB), a type-A polymer (dielectrically-active normal mode). There are three dynamic processes appearing at lower…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…
For a wide range of modern soft functional materials the selective transport of sub-nanometer-sized molecules (`penetrants') through a stimuli-responsive polymeric membrane is key to the desired function. In this study, we investigate the…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the thermodynamic behavior of a single-component covalent material described by the recently proposed Environment-Dependent Interatomic Potential (EDIP). The parameterization of EDIP for silicon…
Effect of small additive molecules on the structural relaxation of polymer melts is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. At a constant external pressure and a fixed number concentration of added molecules, the variation of…
We investigate the structural and topological properties of hydrophobic homopolymer chains in aqueous solutions using molecular dynamics simulations and circuit topology (CT) analysis. By combining geometric observables, such as radius of…
Surface creasing in swelling polymer gels is commonly attributed to compressive strain or interlayer mismatch, yet its general control remains unclear. Here we show that solvent polymerization degree $N_{\rm s}$ provides an independent…
The advances in new technologies have prompted the need for functional systems smaller than the gyration radius of polymer chains. Thus, understanding how nanoconfinement affects polymer properties has been the focus of a lot of research…
Vitrimers are a relatively new class of polymeric materials containing associative covalent dynamic bonds that make them recyclable by design. However, the fundamental mechanisms controlling their viscoelastic properties remain poorly…
Published dielectric relaxation measurements on polypropylene glycol and 1,4-polyisoprene are analyzed to determine the relative effect that thermal energy and volume have on the temperature dependence of the normal mode relaxation times,…
We study the thermodynamics of binary mixtures with the volume fraction of the minority component less than the amount required to form a flat interface and show that the surface tension dominated equilibrium phase of the mixture forms a…
Microstructurally arrested matter, from molecular glasses to soft glassy materials, can retain a memory of their thermal or mechanical (shear) histories. Their history-dependent and nonlinear microstructural recoveries have been studied…
Soft particles such as microgels and core-shell particles can undergo significant and anisotropic deformations when adsorbed to a liquid interface. This, in turn, leads to a complex phase behavior upon compression. Here we develop a…