Related papers: Self-similar chain conformations in polymer gels
Polymer gels such as jellies and soft contact lenses are soft solids consisting of three-dimensional polymer networks swollen with a large amount of solvent. For approximately 80 years, the swelling of polymer gels has been described using…
This paper discusses the elastic behavior of polyelectrolyte networks. The deformation behavior of single polyelectrolyte chains is discussed. It is shown that a strong coupling between interactions and chain elasticity exists. The theory…
We study the swelling of a flexible linear chain composed of active particles by analytical theory and computer simulation. Three different situations are considered: a free chain, a chain confined to an external harmonic trap, and a chain…
Presenting theoretical arguments and numerical results we demonstrate long-range intrachain correlations in concentrated solutions and melts of long flexible polymers which cause a systematic swelling of short chain segments. They can be…
Interpenetrated Polymer Network (IPN) microgels of PNIPAM and PAAc have been investigated and the experimental data have been compared with theoretical models from the Flory-Rehner theory. We confirm that the swelling behavior of PNIPAM…
Following Flory's ideality hypothesis the chemical potential of a test chain of length $n$ immersed into a dense solution of chemically identical polymers of length distribution P(N) is extensive in $n$. We argue that an additional…
We present computer simulations of three systems of randomly branching polymers in d=3 dimensions: ideal trees and self-avoiding trees with annealed and quenched connectivities. In all cases, we performed a detailed analysis of trees…
The equilibrium structure and dynamics of a single polymer chain in a thermal solvent is by now well-understood in terms of scaling laws. Here we consider a polymer in a bacterial bath, i.e. in a solvent consisting of active particles which…
The swelling equilibrium of Olympic gels, which are composed of entangled cyclic polymers, is studied by Monte Carlo Simulations. In contrast to chemically crosslinked polymer networks, we observe that Olympic gels made of chains with a…
We perform molecular-dynamics simulations for polymer melts of the coarse-grained polyvinyl alcohol model that crystallizes upon slow cooling. To establish the properties of its high temperature liquid state as a reference point, we…
Following the Flory ideality hypothesis intrachain and interchain excluded volume interactions are supposed to compensate each other in dense polymer systems. Multi-chain effects should thus be neglected and polymer conformations may be…
Two-dimensional monodisperse linear polymer chains are known to adopt for sufficiently large chain lengths $N$ and surface fractions $\phi$ compact configurations with fractal perimeters. We show here by means of Monte Carlo simulations of…
A cornerstone of modern polymer physics is the `Flory ideality hypothesis' which states that a chain in a polymer melt adopts `ideal' random-walk-like conformations. Here we revisit theoretically and numerically this pivotal assumption and…
Randomly branching polymers with {\em annealed} connectivity are model systems for ring polymers and chromosomes. In this context, the branched structure represents transient folding induced by topological constraints. Here we present…
The non-linear stress-strain relation for crosslinked polymer networks is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Previously we demonstrated the importance of trapped entanglements in determining the elastic and relaxational…
We present results of molecular dynamics simulations of very long model polymer chains analyzed by various experimentally relevant techniques. The segment motion of the chains is found to be in very good agreement with the repatation model.…
It is commonly accepted that in concentrated solutions or melts high-molecular weight polymers display random-walk conformational properties without long-range correlations between subsequent bonds. This absence of memory means, for…
The elasticity of disordered and polydisperse polymer networks is a fundamental problem of soft matter physics that is still open. Here, we self-assemble polymer networks via simulations of a mixture of bivalent and tri- or tetravalent…
We present a detailed study of the static and dynamic behavior of long semiflexible polymer chains in a melt. Starting from previously obtained fully equilibrated high molecular weight polymer melts [{\it Zhang et al.} ACS Macro Lett. 3,…
Nonlinear extensional flows are common in polymer processing but remain challenging theoretically because dramatic stretching of chains deforms the entanglement network far from equilibrium. Here, we present coarse-grained simulations of…