Related papers: Spinodal-assisted crystallization in polymer melts
We re-explore the kinetics of spinodal decomposition in off-critical polymer blends through numerical simulations of the Cahn-Hilliard equation with the Flory-Huggins-De Gennes free energy functional. Even in the absence of thermal noise,…
Traditionally, solubility and mixing belong to the realm of chemistry and material sciences and many standard textbooks on physical chemistry treat this problem, usually within the scope of thermodynamics. Here apart from thermodynamics we…
We investigate condensation of a long confined chiral nematic polymer inside a spherical enclosure, mimicking condensation of DNA inside a viral capsid. The Landau-de Gennes nematic free energy {\sl Ansatz} appropriate for nematic polymers…
For a system of Brownian particles interacting via a soft exponential potential we investigate the interaction between equilibrium crystallization and spatially varying shear flow. For thermodynamic state points within the liquid part of…
We report experimental and simulation studies of the structure of a monolayer of indented ("lock and key") colloids, on a planar surface. On adding a non-absorbing polymer with prescribed radius and volume fraction, depletion interactions…
The evolution of the atomic structures of the combinatorial library of Sm-substituted thin film BiFeO3 along the phase transition boundary from the ferroelectric rhombohedral phase to the non-ferroelectric orthorhombic phase is explored…
Cholesteric liquid crystals can exhibit spatial patterns in molecular alignment at interfaces that can be exploited for particle assembly. These patterns emerge from the competition between bulk and surface energies, tunable with the system…
We look for a simple analytic model to distinguish between stellar clusters undergoing a bimodal hydrodynamic solution from those able to drive only a stationary wind. Clusters in the bimodal regime undergo strong radiative cooling within…
The order-disorder transition of a sphere-forming block copolymer thin film was numerically studied through a Cahn-Hilliard model. Simulations show that the fundamental mechanisms of pattern formation are spinodal decomposition and…
We investigate the behavior of colloidal suspensions with different volume fractions confined between parallel walls under a range of steady shears. We model the particles using molecular dynamics (MD) with full hydrodynamic interactions…
The formation of (bio)molecular condensates via liquid-liquid phase separation in cells has received increasing attention, as these coacervates play important functional and regulatory roles within biological systems. However, the majority…
Polymer systems in slab geometries are studied on the basis of the recently presented Gaussian Ellipsoid Model [J. Chem. Phys. 114, 7655 (2001)].The potential of the confining walls has an exponential shape. For homogeneous systems in…
We investigate shear-induced crystallization in a very dense flow of mono-disperse inelastic hard spheres. We consider a steady plane Couette flow under constant pressure and neglect gravity. We assume that the granular density is greater…
We represent a theory of polymer gelation as an analogue of liquid-glass transition in which elastic fields of stress and strain shear components appear spontaneously as a consequence of the cross-linking of macromolecules. This…
We demonstrate that an extended picture of kinetic constraints in glass-forming liquids is sufficient to explain dynamic anomalies observed in dense suspensions of strongly attracting colloidal particles. We augment a simple model of…
We study the dynamics of torque driven spherical spinners settled on a surface, and demonstrate that hydrodynamic interactions at finite Reynolds numbers can lead to a concentration dependent and non-uniform crystallisation. At semi-dilute…
The salt-induced microheterogeneity (MH) formation in binary liquid mixtures is studied by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and liquid state theory. Previous experiments have shown that this phenomenon occurs for antagonistic salts,…
We study the thermodynamics of binary mixtures with the volume fraction of the minority component less than the amount required to form a flat interface and show that the surface tension dominated equilibrium phase of the mixture forms a…
The geometric shape, symmetry, and topology of colloidal particles often allow for controlling colloidal phase behavior and physical properties of these soft matter systems. In liquid crystalline dispersions, colloidal particles with low…
The influence of a stationary shear flow on the crystallization in a glassy system is studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations and subsequent cluster analysis. The results reveal two opposite effects of the shear flow on the…