Related papers: Studies of a weak polyampholyte at the air-buffer …
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…
Certain surfactant monolayers at the water-air interface have been found to undergo, at a critical surface pressure, a dynamic instability involving multiple long folds of micron width. We exploit the sharp monolayer translations…
We study the spreading kinetics of a monolayer of hard-core particles on a semi-infinite, chemically heterogeneous solid substrate, one side of which is coupled to a particle reservoir. The substrate is modeled as a square lattice…
We investigate experimentally and theoretically thin layers of colloid particles held adjacent to a solid substrate by gravity. Epifluorescence, confocal, and holographic microscopy, combined with Monte Carlo and hydrodynamic simulations,…
Amphiphilic lipid bilayers modify the friction properties of the surfaces on top of which they are deposited. In particular, the measured sliding friction coefficient is significantly reduced compared with the native surface. We investigate…
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…
The behavior of proteins near interfaces is relevant for biological and medical purposes. Previous results in bulk show that, when the protein concentration increases, the proteins unfold and, at higher concentrations, aggregate. Here, we…
Thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) particles of a nearly constant swelling ratio and with polydispersity indices (PDIs) varying over a wide range (7.4% - 48.9%) are synthesized to study the effects of polydispersity on…
Polyelectrolyte (PE) brushes have ubiquitous applications as surface modifiers which regulate various structural and dynamic properties. Here, we apply a continuous-space self-consistent field theory to study the structural heterogeneity in…
Interfaces are a most common motif in complex systems. To understand how the presence of interfaces affect hydrophobic phenomena, we use molecular simulations and theory to study hydration of solutes at interfaces. The solutes range in size…
We use molecular dynamics computer simulations and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments to investigate the dynamics of water at interfaces of molecular roughness and low mobility. We find that, when approaching such interfaces, the…
We study the conformation of a heterogeneous surfactant monolayer at a fluid-fluid interface, near a boundary between two lateral regions of differing elastic properties. The monolayer attains a conformation of shallow, steep `mesas' with a…
Using first-principles calculations, we have investigated the evolution of band-edges in few-layer phosphorene as a function of the number of P layers. Our results predict that monolayer phosphorene is an indirect band gap semiconductor and…
The ion-lipid interface in Langmuir monolayers of Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) on pure water and 10 mM solutions of Na+ and K+ at different [K+]/[Na+] (a), atom/atom ratios, were studied initially by Surface Pressure (p) versus…
Complex morphologies and microstructures that emerge during materials growth and solidification are often determined by both equilibrium and kinetic properties of the interface and their crystalline anisotropies. However limited knowledge…
Ionic behaviors, including ion distributions and hydration characteristics at solid-liquid interfaces, are important research interests in many important applications, such as electric double-layer capacitors and water lubrication. Here, we…
We study the coupling between the structural dynamics and rheological response of charged colloidal monolayers at water/oil interfaces, driven into steady shear by a microdisk rotating at a controlled angular velocity. The flow causes…
In this work, we study the cobalt radical interface obtained by depositing a monolayer of a derivative of the Blatter radical on polycrystalline cobalt. By examining the occupied and unoccupied states at the interface, using soft X-ray…
Electrostatic interactions play a fundamental role in the structure and function of proteins. Due to ionizable amino acid residues present on the solvent-exposed surfaces of proteins, the protein charge is not constant but varies with the…
We report on the development of a new model of alveolar air-tissue interface on a chip. The model consists of an array of suspended hexagonal monolayers of gelatin nanofibers supported by microframes and a microfluidic device for the patch…