Related papers: Crystallization of a polymer on a surface
A compressed knotted ring polymer in a confining cavity is modelled by a knotted lattice polygon confined in a cube in ${\mathbb Z}^3$. The GAS algorithm [17] is used to sample lattice polygons of fixed knot type in a confining cube and to…
When compressed, certain lattices undergo phase transitions that may allow nuclei to gain significant kinetic energy. To explore the dynamics of this phenomenon, we develop a framework to study Coulomb coupled N-body systems constrained to…
Dendritic growth patterns exhibiting four-fold anisotropy are observed when polyethylene oxide undergoes phase segregation from a solution phase to a solid phase. When this phase transition occurs on a substrate that has patterns of…
The effect of confinement in the segmental relaxation of polymers is considered. On the basis of a thermodynamic model we discuss the emerging relevance of the fast degrees of freedom in stimulating the much slower segmental relaxation, as…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
Many small proteins fold via a first-order "all-or-none" transition directly from an expanded coil to a compact native state. Here we study an analogous direct freezing transition from an expanded coil to a compact crystallite for a simple…
A free-energy functional for a crystal that contains both the symmetry conserved and symmetry broken parts of the direct pair correlation function is developed. The free-energy functional is used to investigate the crystallization of fluids…
We investigate the finite-temperature phase diagram of polar molecules confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry by a harmonic potential along the polarization axis. We employ Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the strongly…
Structural aspects of crystal nucleation in undercooled liquids are explored using a nonlinear hydrodynamic theory of crystallization proposed recently [G. I. Toth et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 26, 055001 (2014)], which is based on…
Single partially confined collapsed polymers are studied in two dimensions. They are described by self-avoiding random walks with nearest-neighbour attractions below the $\Theta$-point, on the surface of an infinitely long cylinder. For the…
Surface-induced liquid crystalline phase transitions evoke fundamental interest and can provide deeper insight into the nature of low-dimensional phase transitions. Board-like conjugated polymers are particularly interesting because they…
The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the…
We study analytically a model of a two dimensional, partially directed, flexible or semiflexible polymer, attached to an attractive wall which is perpendicular to the preferred direction. In addition, the polymer is stretched by an…
Interface energy and kinetic coefficient of crystal growth strongly depend on the face of the crystalline lattice. To investigate the kinetic anisotropy and velocity of different crystallographic faces we use the hyperbolic (modified) phase…
Within the frame of an effective, coarse-grained hydrophobic-polar protein model, we employ multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations to investigate free-energy landscapes and folding channels of exemplified heteropolymer sequences, which are…
A phenomenological free energy model is proposed to describe the behavior of smectic liquid crystals, an intermediate phase that exhibits orientational order and layering at the molecular scale. Advantageous properties render the functional…
Targeting specific technological applications requires the control of nanoparticle properties, especially the crystalline polymorph. Freezing a nanodroplet deposited on a solid substrate leads to the formation of crystalline structures. We…
The free energy cost of confining a star polymer where $f$ flexible polymer chains containing $N$ monomeric units are tethered to a central unit in a slit with two parallel repulsive walls a distance $D$ apart is considered, for good…
Starting from a protein solution which is metastable with respect to the crystalline phase, the effect of adding semidilute non-adsorbing polymer is considered. It is found to increase the chemical potential of the protein by a few tenths…
Long linear polymers in dilute solutions are known to undergo a collapse transition from a random coil (expand itself) to a compact ball (fold itself up) when the temperature is lowered, or the solvent quality deteriorates. A natural model…