Related papers: Design of Copolymeric Materials
This work is concerned with the micro-architecture of multi-layer material that globally exhibits desired mechanical properties, for instance a negative apparent Poisson ratio. We use inverse homogenization, the level set method, and the…
Mechanically bonded membranes of interlocked ring polymers are a significant generalization of conventional elastic sheets, where connectivity is provided by covalent bonding, and represent a promising class of topological meta-materials.…
Self-assembly of ordered nanometer-scale patterns is interesting in itself, but its practical value depends on the ability to predict and control pattern formation. In this paper we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that engineering…
Direct design of complex functional materials would revolutionize technologies ranging from printable organs to novel clean energy devices. However, even incremental steps towards designing functional materials have proven challenging. If…
Elastomeric mechanical metamaterials exhibit unconventional behaviour, emerging from their microstructures often deforming in a highly nonlinear and unstable manner. Such microstructural pattern transformations lead to non-local behaviour…
Microphase separation in random multiblock copolymers is studied with mean-field theory assuming that long blocks of a copolymer are strongly segregated, whereas short blocks are able to penetrate into "alien" domains and exchange between…
The formation of various bicontinuous phases from binary blends of linear AB diblock copolymers (DBCPs) is studied using the polymeric self-consistent field theory. The theoretical study predicts that the double-diamond and the "plumber's…
Finding an optimal match between two different crystal structures underpins many important materials science problems, including describing solid-solid phase transitions, developing models for interface and grain boundary structures. In…
We perform a thermodynamic analysis of the polymerization-induced phase separation in nanoparticle-monomer-polymer blends using a simple model recently proposed by V. V. Ginzburg (Macromolecules 2005, 38, 2362.). The model was adapted for…
Soft nanocomposites represent both a theoretical and an experimental challenge due to the high number of the microscopic constituents that strongly influence the behaviour of the systems. An effective theoretical description of such systems…
The phase behavior of polydisperse ABA triblock copolymers is studied using dissipative particle dynamics simulations, focusing on the emergence and property of bicontinuous structures. Bicontinuous structures are characterized by two…
We present a novel computational implementation of strong segregation theory, developed specifically for calculations of phase separated ABC star terpolymers. The method allows calculation of free energies of common two-dimensional…
Amphiphilic block copolymer solutions form various micellar structures including micelles and vesicles. We applied the density functional theory for block copolymers which we have proposed to amphiphilic block copolymer systems. The 3…
Blocking is often used to reduce known variability in designed experiments by collecting together homogeneous experimental units. A common modelling assumption for such experiments is that responses from units within a block are dependent.…
Porous structures are materials consisting of minuscule pores, where the microstructure morphology significantly impacts their macroscopic properties. Integrating different porous structures through a blending method is indispensable to…
Spontaneous self-assembly in molecular systems is a fundamental route to both biological and engineered soft matter. Simple micellisation, emulsion formation, and polymer mixing principles are well understood. However, the principles behind…
Hyperbranched block copolymers offer a simpler and more efficient synthesis route compared to more traditional dendritic systems, while still providing exceptional control over surface functionality and self-assembly. This makes them ideal…
We consider the numerical approximation of single phase flow in porous media by a mixed finite element method with mass lumping. Our work extends previous results of Wheeler and Yotov, who showed that mass lumping together with an…
In contrast to most self-assembling synthetic materials, which undergo unbounded growth, many biological self-assembly processes are self-limited. That is, the assembled structures have one or more finite dimensions that are much larger…
We investigate the behaviour of randomly cross-linked (co)polymer blends using a combination of replica theory and large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. In particular, we derive the analogue of the random phase approximation for…