Related papers: Chains in critical fluids and nanopores
The aim of this paper is to investigate the distribution of a continuous polymer in the presence of an attractive finitely supported potential. The most intricate behavior can be observed if we simultaneously and independently vary two…
We study the behavior of a flexible polymer chain in the presence of a low-molecular weight solvent in the vicinity of a liquid-gas critical point within the framework of a self-consistent field theory. The total free energy of the dilute…
When fluids are confined in nanopores, many of their properties deviate from bulk. These include bulk modulus, or compressibility, which determines the mechanical properties of fluid-saturated porous solids. Such properties are of…
Nanoporous materials are characterized by their complex porous morphology illustrated by the presence of a solid network and voids. The fraction of these voids is characterized by the porosity of the structure, which influences the bulk…
Polymer chains immersed in different solvent molecules exhibit diverse properties due to multiple spatiotemporal scales and complex interactions. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the conformational and static properties of…
While the dynamics of polymer chains in equilibrium media is well understood by now, the polymer dynamics in active non-equilibrium environments can be very different. Here we study the dynamics of polymers in a viscous medium containing…
When a fluid is confined to a nanopore, its thermodynamic properties differ from the properties of a bulk fluid, so measuring such properties of the confined fluid can provide information about the pore sizes. Here we report a simple…
Solutions of semiflexible polymers confined by repulsive planar walls are studied by density functional theory and Molecular Dynamics simulations, to clarify the competition between the chain alignment favored by the wall and the depletion…
Numerical results on the translocation of long biopolymers through mid-sized and wide pores are presented. The simulations are based on a novel methodology which couples molecular motion to a mesoscopic fluid solvent. Thousands of events of…
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.…
Critical fluctuations are known to induce a collapse of polymer chains in a mixed solvent upon approaching its liquid-liquid critical point, as originally predicted by Brochard and de Gennes. Recently, we have found that closer to the…
Nanoscale and microscale confinement of biopolymers naturally occurs in cells and has been recently achieved in artificial structures designed for nanotechnological applications. Here, we present an extensive theoretical investigation of…
The phase behavior of a single type of colloid C suspended in near-critical solvents is known to be very rich. Motivated in part by recent experiments we consider a mixture of two colloidal types C1 and C2 in a binary solvent close to its…
Living cells are characterized by the micrometric confinement of various macromolecules at high concentrations. Using droplets containing binary polymer blends as artificial cells, we previously showed that cell-sized confinement causes…
We study pore nucleation in a model membrane system, a freestanding polymer film. Nucleated pores smaller than a critical size close, while pores larger than the critical size grow. Holes of varying size were purposefully prepared in liquid…
The bulk phase behavior of a fluid is typically altered when the fluid is brought into confinement by the walls of a random porous medium. Inside the porous medium, phase transition points are shifted, or may disappear altogether. A crucial…
The motion of active polymers in a porous medium is shown to depend critically on flexibilty, activity and degree of polymerization. For given Peclet number, we observe a transition from localisation to diffusion as the stiffness of the…
Conformations of a crowded neutral semiflexible polymer under confinement near an attractive wall are studied via coarse-grained simulations. We study the effects of the interplay of the length of the polymer, bending rigidity, and the…
Experiments using nanofluidic devices have proven effective in characterizing the physical properties of polymers confined to small cavities. Two recent studies using such methods examined the organization and dynamics of two DNA molecules…
Polymer solutions exhibit anomalous flow thickening -- marked by an abrupt increase in the macroscopic flow resistance -- above a threshold flow rate in a porous medium, but not in bulk solution. This phenomenon has evaded a mechanistic…