Related papers: Why do Thin Polymer Films Melt at Lower Temperatur…
Surface segregation of the low-molecular weight component in a polymeric mixture leads to degradation of industrial formulations. We report a simultaneous phase separation and surface migration phenomena in oligomer-polymer and oligomer-gel…
Metal-insulator transition is observed in the La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 thin films with thickness larger than 5 unit cells. Insulating phase at lower temperature appeared in the ultrathin films with thickness ranging from 6 unit cells to 10 unit cells…
We introduce a new quantity to probe the glass transition. This quantity is a linear generalized compressibility which depends solely on the positions of the particles. We have performed a molecular dynamics simulation on a glass forming…
Polymer glasses have numerous advantageous mechanical properties in comparison to other materials. One of the most useful is the high degree of toughness that can be achieved due to significant yield occurring in the material. Remarkably,…
We show how dynamic heterogeneities (DH), a hallmark of glass-forming materials, depend on chain flexibility and chain length in polymers. For highly flexible polymers, a relatively large number of monomers ($N_c\sim500$) undergo correlated…
Thermal conductivity of a model glass-forming system in the liquid and glass states is studied using extensive numerical simulations. We show that near the glass transition temperture, where the structural relaxation time becomes very long,…
In liquid argon-based particle detectors, slow wavelength shifters (WLSs) could be used alongside the common, nanosecond scale, WLS tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB) for background mitigation purposes. At room temperature, pyrene has a moderate…
Despite their technological relevance, a full microscopic understanding of glasses is still lacking. This applies even more to their surfaces whose properties largely differ from that of the bulk material. Here, we experimentally…
Superconducting properties of thin films can be vastly different from those of bulk materials. Seminal work has shown the critical temperature Tc of elemental superconductors decreases with decreasing film thickness when the normal-state…
The breakdown of the time-temperature superposition (TTS) near its glass transition temperature (Tg) in simple bead-spring polymer melts with and without the chain angle potential was numerically investigated. The stress relaxation modulus…
Polyamide 6,6 (PA66) is a key engineering polymer, whose unique mechanical properties arise from strong interchain hydrogen bonding. However, its hygroscopic nature makes it highly sensitive to water uptake, which markedly alters its…
The structural aspects of polyacrylamide thin films annealed at degradation threshold temperature have been studied as a function of annealing time using in situ X-ray reflectivity technique in vacuum. We observe significant decrease of…
Polymer blends consisting of two or more polymers are important for a wide variety of industries and processes, but, the precise mechanism of their thermomechanical behaviour is incompletely understood. In order to understand clearly, it is…
We studied the spectral dynamics of single fluorescent dye molecules embedded in ultrathin films (5 - 100 nm) of the amorphous polymer polyisobutylene at cryogenic temperatures and its variation with film thickness. Noticeable portion of…
In this work we use molecular simulations to examine methods of controlling mechanical properties of polymeric glass materials such as elastic moduli, mechanical heterogeneity as well as their glass transition temperature. We study filled…
Using molecular dynamics computer simulations we investigate how in silica the glass transition and the properties of the resulting glass depend on the cooling rate with which the sample is cooled. By coupling the system to a heat bath with…
We study the translocation of a flexible polymer through a pore in a membrane induced by its adsorption on \trans side of the membrane. When temperature $T$ is higher than $T_c$, the adsorption-desorption transition temperature, attractive…
Nanotechnology and the consequent emergence of miniaturized devices are driving the need to improve our understanding of the mechanical properties of a myriad of materials. Here we focus on amorphous polymeric materials and introduce a new…
Atomically thin polycrystalline transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are relevant to both fundamental science investigation and applications. TMD thin-films present uniquely difficult challenges to effective nanoscale crystalline…
Understanding thermal transport in silicon nanostructures is crucial for effective thermal management in semiconductor devices. In such nanostructures, boundary scattering can significantly reduce thermal conductivity. Diffusive boundary…