Related papers: Do Spherical Polyelectrolyte Brushes Interdigitate…
The structural features of polystyrene brushes grafted on spherical silica nanoparticles immersed in polystyrene are investigated by means of a Monte Carlo methodology based on polymer mean field theory. The nanoparticle radii (either 8 nm…
The evolution of the polymer structure during nanocomposite formation and annealing of silica-latex nanocomposites is studied using contrast-variation small angle neutron scattering. The experimental system is made of silica nanoparticles…
The equilibrium properties of block copolymer micelles confined in polymer thin films are investigated using self-consistent field theory. The theory is based on a model system consisting of AB diblock copolymers and A homopolymers. Two…
Polyelectrolytes under confinement are crucial for energy storage and for understanding biomolecular functions. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we analyze a polyelectrolyte solution confined between two oppositely charged planar…
A new quantitative theory for polyelectrolytes in salt free dilute solutions is developed. Depending on the electrostatic interaction strength, polyelectrolytes in solutions can undergo strong stretching (with polyelectrolyte dimension…
During the last 3 years, our group has investigated extensively the complexation mechanism between neutral-polyelectrolyte block copolymers with oppositely charged species. These species are surfactant micelles, multivalent counterions and…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…
The form factor of partially sulfonated polystyrene PSSNa (degree of sulfonation f =1, 0.72, 0.64 and 0.36), at polymer concentration 0.17M and 0.34M, without or with added salt (0 M, 0.34M, & 0.68M), is measured by Small Angle Neutron…
The formation of soluble hydrogen-bonding interpolymer complexes between poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(acrylic acid-co-2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid)-graft-poly(N, N dimethylacrylamide) (P(AA-co-AMPSA)-g-PDMAM) at pH =…
A simple model was constructed to describe the polar ordering of non-centrosymmetric supramolecular aggregates formed by self assembling triblock rodcoil polymers. The aggregates are modeled as dipoles in a lattice with an Ising-like…
Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs), similar to their ionic liquid (IL) analogues, present a nanostructure arising from local interactions. The influence of this nanostructure on the macromolecular conformation of polymer chains is investigated for…
If many micelles adsorb onto the same polymer molecule then they are said to form a necklace. A minimal model of such a necklace is proposed and shown to be almost equivalent to a 1-dimensional fluid with nearest-neighbour interactions. The…
The generation of nanoscale square and stripe patterns is of major technological importance since they are compatible with industry-standard electronic circuitry. Recently, a blend of diblock copolymer interacting via hydrogen-bonding was…
Water is essential for almost every aspect of life on our planet and, unsurprisingly, its properties have been studied in great detail. However, disproportionately little remains known about the electrical properties of interfacial and…
We have applied small angle scattering in grazing incidence beam geometry on a time-of-flight neutron instrument. Due to the broad wavelength distribution provided for a specific incident beam angle the penetration depth of the neutron beam…
We report electron microscopy observations of the surface plastic flow in polishing of rough metal surfaces with a controlled spherical asperity structure. We show that asperity--abrasive sliding contacts exhibit viscous behavior, where the…
We derive effective interaction potentials between hard, spherical colloidal particles and star-branched polyelectrolytes of various functionalities and smaller size than the colloids. The effective interactions are based on a…
Representing polyether-salt systems by chains of interacting coordination shells, defined by the cation and by its nearest ligands, we derive the interaction potential between closest shells -- the inter-shells potential -- in terms of…
The structure of polyelectrolytes is highly sensitive to small changes in the interactions between its monomers. In particular, interactions mediated by counterions play a significant role, and are affected by both specific molecular…
In this work we explore the rheology of very concentrated (0.55<$\Phi$<0.67) suspensions of carbonyl iron (CI) particles coated by a small polymer. A strong DST is observed in a large range of volume fraction presenting some specificities…