Related papers: Structure and Aggregation of a Helix-Forming Polym…
We use computer simulations to investigate how a catalytic reaction in a polymer sol can induce the formation of a polymer gel. To this aim we consider a solution of homopolymers in which freely-diffusing catalysts convert the originally…
Molecular dynamics simulation of a generic polymer model is applied to study melts of polymers with different types of intrinsic stiffness. Important static observables of the single chain such as gyration radius or persistence length are…
A mean field rate theory description of the homo- and co-polymerization of $f$-functional molecules is developed, which contains the formation of short cyclic structures inside the network. The predictions of this model are compared with…
Using Langevin simulations, we find that simple 'generic' bead-and-spring homopolymer chains in a sufficiently bad solvent spontaneously develop helical order during the process of collapsing from an initially stretched conformation. The…
Some of our recent studies of the structure and mechanical properties of a special type of nanocomposite are reviewed here. In silica-latex systems, a latex film with silica inclusions is formed from a colloidal solution of both components.…
We study ground states of a hybrid system consisting of a polymer and an attractive nanowire by means of computer simulations. Depending on structural and energetic properties of the substrate, we find different adsorbed polymer…
We use a recently developed lattice model to study the percolation of particles of different sizes and shapes in the presence of a polymer matrix. The polymer is modeled as an infinitely long semiflexible chain. We study the effects of the…
Using experiments, theory and simulations, we show that the arrested state observed in a colloidal clay at intermediate concentrations is stabilized by the screened Coulomb repulsion (Wigner glass). Dilution experiments allow us to…
The change of the structure of concentrated colloidal suspensions upon addition of non-adsorbing polymer is studied within a two-component, Ornstein-Zernicke based liquid state approach. The polymers' conformational degrees of freedom are…
Using video-microscopy imaging we demonstrate the existence of a short-ranged equilibrium attraction between heavy silica colloids diffusing on soft surfaces of cross-linked polymer gels. The inter-colloid potential can be tuned by changing…
Polymers with both soluble and insoluble blocks typically self-assemble into micelles, aggregates of a finite number of polymers where the soluble blocks shield the insoluble ones from contact with the solvent. Upon increasing…
Conformational transitions of flexible molecules, especially those driven by hydrophobic effects, tend to be hindered by desolvation barriers. For such transitions, it is thus important to characterize and understand the interplay between…
We show that near densest-packing the perturbations of the HCP structure yield higher entropy than perturbations of any other densest packing. The difference between the various structures shows up in the correlations between motions of…
The assumption of a spatially uniform helium distribution in the intracluster medium can lead to biases in the estimates of key cluster parameters if composition gradients are present. The helium concentration profile in galaxy clusters is…
Spherical confinement can act either stabilizing or destabilizing on the collapsed state of a semi-flexible polymer. General free-energy arguments suggest that the order of the unconstrained collapse transition is the distinguishing factor:…
The formation of chain-folded structures from the melt is observed in molecular dynamics simulations resembling the lamellae of polymer crystals. Crystallization and subsequent melting temperatures are related linearly to the inverse…
A simple three-dimensional model of a fluid whose constituent particles interact via a short range attractive and long range repulsive potential is used to model the aggregation into large spherical-like clusters made up of hundreds of…
Recently, we proposed a self-propelled particle model with competing alignment interactions: nearby particles tend to align their velocities whereas they anti-align their direction of motion with particles which are further away [R.…
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…
One of the most interesting phenomena in the soft-matter realm consists in the spontaneous formation of super-molecular structures (microphases) in condition of thermodynamic equilibrium. A simple mechanism responsible for this…