Related papers: Polyelectrolyte gels in poor solvent: Equilibrium …
The macroscopic mechanical properties of colloidal particle gels strongly depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles. Experiments have shown that more heterogeneous microstructures exhibit up to one order of magnitude higher…
Dynamics of various biological filaments can be understood within the framework of active polymer models. Here we consider a bead-spring model for a flexible polymer chain in which the active interaction among the beads is introduced via an…
We present a new model to describe the unusual elastic properties of compressed emulsions. The response of a single droplet under compression is investigated numerically for different Wigner-Seitz cells. The response is softer than…
The equilibrium properties of ionic microgels are investigated using a combination of the Poisson-Boltzmann and Flory theories. Swelling behavior, density profiles, and effective charges are all calculated in a self-consistent way. Special…
We present a Ginzburg-Landau theory of inhomogeneous polyelectrolytes with a polar solvent. First, we take into account the molecular (solvation) interaction among the ions, the charged monomers, the uncharged monomers, and the solvent…
Physically assembled gels have promising applications in many fields because of their tunable mechanical properties. Here, we report the mechanical properties as a function of polymer volume fraction ($\phi$) for a physical gel system…
We introduce a generalized non-uniform mean-field formalism to describe the dissociation of weak rod-like polyelectrolytes (PEs). Our approach allows for two-sublattice symmetry breaking which in titration curves is associated with a…
This paper examines the response of electrolyte-saturated polymer gels, embedded with charged spherical inclusions, to a weak gradient of electrolyte concentration. These composites present a model system to study microscale electrokinetic…
Solutions of polymer chains are modelled using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics simulations, with physically associative beads which form reversible crosslinks to establish a system-spanning physical gel network. Rheological properties…
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…
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…
We perform thorough molecular-dynamics simulations to compare elasticity and yielding of atomic crystals and model semicrystalline polymers, the latter characterized by very similar positional ordering with respect to atomic crystals and…
Polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM) in combination with good electrolyte solvents, e.g., ionic liquids (ILs) are potential candidates for the new generation of electrochemical separators. Swelling PEM with aqueous IL solutions is one way to…
Dispersed colloidal particles within a suspension can aggregate and spontaneously self-organize into a robust, percolating structure known as a gel. These network-like structures are prevalent in nature and play a critical role in many…
The patterns arising from the differential swelling of gels are investigated experimentally and theoretically as a model for the differential growth of living tissues. Two geometries are considered: a thin strip of soft gel clamped to a…
The validity of the affine assumption in model flexible polymer networks is explored. To this end, the displacements of fluorescent tracer beads embedded in polyacrylamide gels are quantified by confocal microscopy under shear deformation,…
Representing polyether-salt systems by chains of interacting coordination shells, defined by the cation and by its nearest ligands, we derive the interaction potential between closest shells -- the inter-shells potential -- in terms of…
From pasta to biological tissues to contact lenses, gel and gel-like materials inherently soften as they swell with water. In dry, low-relative-humidity environments, these materials stiffen as they de-swell with water. Here, we use…
We demonstrate in this paper the influence of solvent quality on the structure of the semi-dilute solution of a hydrophobic polyelectrolyte, partially sulfonated Poly-Styrene Sulfonate. Two solvents are used: (i) one mixture of water and an…
We discuss a class of models for particulate gels in which the particle contacts are described by an effective interaction combining a two-body attraction and a three-body angular repulsion. Using molecular dynamics, we show how varying the…