Related papers: Colloids, polymers, and needles: Demixing phase be…

The phase behavior of binary fluid mixtures of hard hyperspheres in four and five dimensions is investigated. Spinodal instability is found by using a recent and accurate prescription for the equation of state of the mixture that requires…

We introduce a novel coarse-grained bead-spring model for flexible polymers to systematically examine the effects of an adjusted bonded potential on the formation and stability of structural macrostates in a thermal environment. The density…

Scaled particle theory for a binary mixture of hard discorectangles and for a binary mixture of hard rectangles is used to predict possible liquid-crystal demixing scenarios in two dimensions. Through a bifurcation analysis from the…

Active processes in living systems generate nonequilibrium forces that deform embedded passive macromolecules. To understand how such dynamics influence polymer conformation, we study a flexible passive chain in an active nematic fluid.…

We calculate the phase behavior of hard spheres with size polydispersity, using accurate free energy expressions for the fluid and solid phases. Cloud and shadow curves, which determine the onset of phase coexistence, are found exactly by…

Spinodal demixing of systems into two phases having very different viscosities leads to viscoelastic networks, i.e. gels. Here we consider demixing in a colloidal system where one phase is a nematic liquid crystal with a strongly…

We study the equilibrium phase diagram of binary mixtures of hard spheres as well as of parallel hard cubes. A superior cluster algorithm allows us to establish and to access the demixed phase for both systems and to investigate the subtle…

We theoretically study the nematic ordering transition of rods that are able to elastically adjust their mutually excluded volumes. The model rods, which consist of a hard core surrounded by a deformable shell, mimic the structure of…

Using laser tweezers and fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, we study colloidal interactions of solid microspheres in the nematic bulk caused by elastic distortions around the particles with strong tangential surface anchoring. The…

A phase diagram for a surface interacting long flexible partially directed polymer chain in a two-dimensional poor solvent where the possibility of collapse in the bulk exists is determined using exact enumeration method. We used a model of…

A coarse grained model for flexible polymers end-grafted to repulsive spherical nanoparticles is studied for various chain lengths and grafting densities under good solvent conditions, by Molecular Dynamics methods and density functional…

The implications of soft `patchy' interactions on the orientational disorder-order transition of strongly elongated colloidal rods and flat disks is studied within a simple Onsager-van der Waals density functional theory. The theory…

A molecular-dynamics type simulation method, which is suitable for investigating the dewetting dynamics of thin and viscous liquid layers, is discussed. The efficiency of the method is exemplified by studying a two-parameter depinning-like…

We propose that the behavior of asymmetric binary fluid mixtures with a large class of attractive or repulsive interparticle interactions can be understood by mapping onto effective non-additive hard-sphere models. The latter are best…

We discuss the nonlinear rheology of dense colloidal dispersions at the glass transition. A first principles approach starting with interacting Brownian particles in given arbitrary homogeneous (incompressible) flow neglecting hydrodynamic…

Polydispersity is believed to have important effects on the formation of liquid crystal phases in suspensions of rod-like particles. To understand such effects, we analyse the phase behaviour of thin hard rods with length polydispersity.…

We consider mixtures of two species of spherical colloidal particles that differ in their hydrodynamic radii, but are otherwise identical, in the presence of an external field. Since the particle-particle and particle-field interactions are…

Understanding the phase behaviour of mixtures continues to pose challenges, even for systems that might be considered "simple". Here we consider a very simple mixture of two colloidal and one non-adsorbing polymer species which can be…

Colloidal photonic crystals display peculiar optical properties which make them particularly suitable for application in different fields. However, the low packing fraction of the targeted structures usually poses a real challenge in the…

Membranes are of great technological and biological as well as theoretical interest. Two main classes of membranes can be distinguished: Fluid membranes and polymerized, tethered membranes. Here, we review progress in the theoretical…