Related papers: Polymer Knots in Thin Films: Thickness Dependence,…
Using Monte Carlo simulation, we analyse the behaviour of two-dimensional hard rods in four different types of geometric confinement: (i) a slit pore where the particles are confined between two parallel walls with homeotropic anchoring;…
Polymer composites are ideal candidates for next generation biomimetic soft materials because of their exquisite bottom-up designability. However, the richness of behaviours comes at a price: the need for precise and extensive…
Hydrodynamic slippage plays a crucial role in the flow dynamics of thin polymer films, as recently shown by the analysis of the profiles of liquid fronts. For long-chained polymer films it was reported that a deviation from a symmetric…
We investigate the effects of chain flexibility on the self-assembly behavior of symmetric diblock copolymers (BCPs) when they are confined as a thin film between two surfaces. Employing worm-like chain (WLC) self-consistent field theory,…
We report an experimental study on the dynamics of a thin film of polymer solution coating a vertical fiber. The liquid film has first a constant thickness and then undergoes the Rayleigh-Plateau instability which leads to the formation of…
We systematically explore the self-assembly of semi-flexible polymers in deformable spherical confinement across a wide regime of chain stiffness, contour lengths and packing fractions by means of coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
Simulations in which a globular ring polymer with delocalized knots is separated in two interacting loops by a slipping link, or in two non-interacting globuli by a wall with a hole, show how the minimal crossing number of the knots…
Based upon kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of crystallization in a simple polymer model we present a new picture of the mechanism by which the thickness of lamellar polymer crystals is constrained to a value close to the minimum…
In-situ monitoring and calibration of nano-sculptured thin film thickness is a critical problem due to substrate tilt angle dependent porosity and mass flux. In this letter we present an analytical model for thickness dependence on…
Confinement can significantly alter fluid properties, offering potential for specific technological applications. However, achieving precise control over the structural complexity of confined fluids and soft matter remains challenging, as…
The effect of a finite torque on semiflexible polymers in a confined environment is investigated. It is shown how a new lengthscale appears in the strongly confined limit. The influence of a torque on the extension of biopolymers in…
Thin elastic sheets and membranes are known to wrinkle when they are stretched -- the associated physics is highly non-linear. The mechanics of thin films that exhibit unusual behavior upon stretching, when they possess auxetic structure,…
Thermal transport by phonons in films with thicknesses of less than 10 nm is investigated in a soft system (Lennard-Jones argon) and a stiff system (Tersoff silicon) using two-dimensional lattice dynamics calculations and the Boltzmann…
We investigate experimentally the distribution of configurations of a ring with an elementary topological constraint, a ``figure-8'' twist. Using vibrated granular chains, which permit controlled preparation and direct observation of such a…
Dewetting of thin polystyrene films deposited onto silicone wafers at temperatures close to the glass transition exhibits unusual dynamics and front morphologies. Here, we present a new theoretical approach of these phenomena taking into…
Motivated by recent advances in single molecule manipulation techniques that enabled several groups to tie knots in individual polymer strands and to monitor their dynamics, we have used computer simulations to study "friction knots"…
At ultralow temperatures, polymers exhibit quantum behavior, which is calculated here for the moments <R^2> and <R^4> of the end-to-end distribution in the large-stiffness regime. The result should be measurable for polymers in wide optical…
We present the results of molecular dynamics computer simulations of a binary Lennard-Jones liquid confined between two parallel rough walls. These walls are realized by frozen amorphous configurations of the same liquid and therefore the…
We discuss mechanical buckling instabilities of a rigid film under compression interacting repulsively with a substrate through a thin fluid layer. The buckling occurs at a characteristic wavelength that increases as the 1/4th power of the…
We investigate the sedimentation of knotted polymers by means of stochastic rotation dynamics, a molecular dynamics algorithm that takes hydrodynamics fully into account. We show that the sedimentation coefficient s, related to the terminal…