Related papers: Cosolvency response in polymer brushes
We develop a strong stretching approximation for a polymer brush made of self-avoiding polymer chains. The density profile of the brush and the distribution of the end monomer positions in stretching direction are computed and compared with…
Self-consistent field approach is used to model a single end-tethered polymer chain on a substrate subject to various forces in three dimensions. Starting from a continuous Gaussian chain model, the following perturbations are considered:…
We investigate the dynamics of the collapse of a single copolymer chain, when the solvent quality is suddenly quenched from good to poor. We employ Brownian dynamics simulations of a bead-spring chain model and incorporate fluctuating…
The phase behaviour of two-component bottle-brush polymers with fully flexible backbones under poor solvent conditions is studied via molecular-dynamics simulations, using a coarse-grained bead-spring model and side chains of up to $N=40$…
We study the stress distribution in a polymer brush material over a range of graft densities using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and theory. Flexible polymer chains are treated as beads connected by nonlinear springs governed by a…
Modeling ion correlations in inhomogeneous polymers and soft matters with spatially varying ionic strength or dielectric permittivity remains a great challenge. Here, we develop a new theory which systematically incorporates electrostatic…
Solutions of interacting linear polymers are mapped onto a system of ``soft'' spherical particles interacting via an effective pair potential. This coarse-graining reduces the individual monomer-level description to a problem involving only…
We study polymer layers formed by irreversible adsorption from a polymer melt. Our theory describes an experiment which is a ``slow'' version of that proposed by Guiselin [Europhys. Lett., v. 17 (1992) p. 225] who considered instantaneously…
We consider a functional surface comprising thermoresponsive polymer chains, the material that has found numerous technological and biomedical applications. However, to achieve the required time and length scales for computer modelling of…
With the ever-increasing digitization of society, the development of materials with low-power memory storage -similar to synapses- is becoming more relevant. The field of iontronic artificial synapses has gained traction, in particular with…
Conformations of a single-component bottle-brush polymer with a fully flexible backbone under poor solvent conditions are studied by molecular-dynamics simulations, using a coarse-grained bead-spring model with side chains of up to N=40…
Polymeric materials that couple deformation and electrostatics have the potential for use in soft sensors and actuators with potential applications ranging from robotic, biomedical, energy, aerospace and automotive technologies. In contrast…
In this paper, we study electrostatic and structural properties between pH-responsive polyelectrolyte brushes by using a strong stretching theory accounting for excluded volume interactions, the density of polyelectrolyte chargeable sites…
We study the partitioning of cosolute particles in a thin film of a semi-flexible polymer network by a combination of coarse-grained (implicit-solvent) stochastic dynamics simulations and mean-field theory. We focus on a wide range of…
The absorption of free linear chains in a polymer brush was studied with respect to chain size $L$ and compatibility $\chi$ with the brush by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and Density Functional Theory (DFT) / Self-Consistent Field…
Bottle brushes are polymeric macromolecules made of a linear polymeric backbone grafted with side chains. The choice of the grafting density {\sigma}g, the length ns the grafted side chains and their chemical nature fully determines the…
Inclusions in mobile brushes experience apparent (depletion) attraction, which arises from a tendency to minimize the volume of depletion zones around the inclusions, thereby to maximize the entropy of the surrounding polymers. Here, we…
Colloidal gels, like many other soft and disordered solids derive their mechanical properties not only from the strength of interparticle attraction, but also from the symmetry of the forces that constrain particle motion. While non-central…
We present results of Monte Carlo study of the monomer-monomer correlation functions, static structure factor and asphericity characteristics of a single homopolymer in the coil and globular states for three distinct architectures of the…
We grafted polyacrylic acid brushes containing cysteine side chains at a defined surface density on planar lipid membranes. Specular X-ray reflectivity data indicated that the addition of Cd2+ ions induces the compaction of the polymer…