Related papers: Strengthening of a Polymer Interface: Interdiffusi…
We study theoretically situations where competition arises between an interdiffusion process and a cross-linking chemical reaction at interfaces between pieces of the same polymer material. An example of such a situation is observable in…
Thermal welding of polymer-polymer interfaces is important for integrating polymeric elements into devices. When two different polymers are joined, the strength of the weld depends critically on the degree of immiscibility. We perform…
Bonding between polymeric interfaces is encountered widely in several industrial applications. Many of these bonding processes rely on time-consuming and temperature-dependent classical mechanism of polymer interdiffusion via reptation in a…
Vitrimers are a class of crosslinked polymer that are capable of undergoing bond exchange reactions, allowing structural reorganization while maintaining overall network integrity. Two key features that are particularly relevant when this…
Self-healing of polymer films often takes place as the molecules diffuse across a damaged region, above their melting temperature. Using molecular dynamics simulations we probe the healing of polymer films and compare the results with those…
Large-scale simulations of thermal welding of polymers are performed to investigate the rise of mechanical strength at the polymer-polymer interface with the welding time. The welding process is in the core of integrating polymeric elements…
Bonding between polymers below the glass transition temperature through molecular-scale dilatation (or densification)-based interdiffusion of macromolecules has recently been introduced. In this mechanism, short timeframe plastic…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
Dispersions of immiscible liquids, such as emulsions and polymer blends, are at the core of many industrial applications which makes the understanding of their properties (morphology, stability, etc.) of great interest. A wide range of…
We study the thermal conductance across solid-solid interfaces as the composition of an intermediate matching layer is varied. In absence of phonon-phonon interactions, an added layer can make the interfacial conductance increase or…
On the basis of a previous theoretical approach to the plastic flow of highly refined materials, a physical explanation for diffusion bonding is essayed, which yields closed--form equations relating the bonding progress with time,…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the glass transition temperature of thin polymer films can be shifted as compared to the same polymer in the bulk, the amplitude and the sign of this effect depending on the interaction between the…
Numerical heat and mass transfer analysis of a configuration where a cool liquid hydrocarbon is suddenly introduced to a hotter gas at supercritical pressure shows that a well-defined phase equilibrium can be established before substantial…
We present single contact friction experiments between a glassy polymer and smooth silica substrates grafted with alkylsilane layers of different coverage densities and morphologies. This allows us to adjust the polymer/substrate…
The interface between two immiscible polymers, polystyrene (PS) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), was studied by neutron reflectivity and dewetting by using free PS chains and PDMS brushes. Unexpectedly, we found that the PS chains diffuse…
Premelting at the ice-polymer interfaces, in which a quasi-liquid layer (QLL) forms below the melting point, is strongly influenced by polymer surface chemistry; however, the molecular-scale mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly…
Much work has studied effective interactions between micron-sized particles carrying linkers forming reversible, inter-particle linkages. These studies allowed understanding the equilibrium properties of colloids interacting through…
Vitrimers are polymer networks that can undergo bond exchange reactions. They dynamically rearrange their structures while maintaining their overall integrity, thus resulting in unique properties such as self-healing, reprocessability,…
The diffusion of small molecular penetrants through polymeric materials represents an important fundamental problem, relevant to the design of materials for applications such as coatings and membranes. Polymer networks hold promise in these…
The results obtained from molecular dynamics simulations of the friction at an interface between polymer melts and weakly attractive crystalline surfaces are reported. We consider a coarse-grained bead-spring model of linear chains with…