showing 9 related works from this author
Ground states of ultrasoft particles with attractions: a genetic algorithm approach
2009
International audience; We analyze in detail the ground-state structure of model systems of athermal star polymers with an additional, tunable attraction that may result from dispersion or depletion forces. To perform a free, unbiased search in the space spanned by the crystal parameters, we employ genetic algorithms, which are enhanced with respect to previous versions in their ability to find stable structures that occupy very narrow basins of attraction in the energy landscape. Application of this method brings about a very large variety of ground states for star polymers with attractions, in particular for the case of intermediate functionalities and strong, short-range attractive force…
Controlling the Interactions between Soft Colloids via Surface Adsorption
2013
By employing monomer-resolved computer simulations and analytical considerations based on polymer scaling theory, we analyze the conformations and interactions of multiarm star polymers strongly adsorbed on a smooth, two-dimensional plane. We find a stronger stretching of the arms as well as a stronger repulsive, effective interaction than in the three dimensional case. In particular, the star size scales with the number of arms $f$ as $\sim f^{1/4}$ and the effective interaction as $\sim f^{2}$, as opposed to $\sim f^{1/5}$ and $\sim f^{3/2}$, respectively, in three dimensions. Our results demonstrate the dramatic effect that geometric confinement can have on the effective interactions and…
Spatial Demixing of Ring and Chain Polymers in Pressure-Driven Flow
2019
We investigate mixtures of ring and linear polymers in solution at various number ratios, ranging from pure chains to pure rings, and at densities around the overlap concentration. In bulk and at r...
Colloidal layers in magnetic fields and under shear flow
2005
The behaviour of colloidal mono- and bilayers in external magnetic fields and under shear is discussed and recent progress is summarized. Superparamagnetic colloidal particles form monolayers when they are confined to a air–water interface in a hanging water droplet. An external magnetic field allows us to tune the strength of the mutual dipole–dipole interaction between the colloids and the anisotropy of the interaction can be controlled by the tilt angle of the magnetic field relative to the surface normal of the air–water interface. For sufficiently large magnetic field strength crystalline monolayers are found. The role of fluctuations in these two-dimensional crystals is discussed. Fur…
Topology-Sensitive Microfluidic Filter for Polymers of Varying Stiffness
2017
The separation of polymers based on their size, rigidity, and topology is an essential but also highly challenging task for nanoscience and engineering. Using hybrid molecular dynamics simulations that correctly take into account hydrodynamics, we have designed microfluidic channels for separating linear from ring polymers in dilute solutions. We establish that the transport velocity of the polymers is independent of their topology and rigidity when the channel walls are smooth and repulsive. However, when the walls are decorated with attractive spots arranged on lines parallel to the flow, ring polymers exhibit an order of magnitude higher transport velocity compared to linear chains. The …
Phase behavior of low-functionality, telechelic star block copolymers.
2010
We apply state-of-the-art, Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations to determine the self-organization and phase behavior of solutions of block copolymer stars. The latter consist of f AB-block copolymers with N monomers each, which contain a solvophilic block A and solvophobic block B, and which are tethered on a common center on their A-side. We vary the degree of polymerization N and the relative composition of the block copolymer arms and investigate the interplay between macrophase and microphase separation in the system. Preliminary results of the effect of increasing the number of arms, f of the stars are also presented.
Bulk and interfacial properties in colloid-polymer mixtures
2005
Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a phase-separating colloid-polymer mixture are performed and compared to recent experiments. The approach is based on effective interaction potentials in which the central monomers of self-avoiding polymer chains are used as effective coordinates. By incorporating polymer nonideality together with soft colloid-polymer repulsion, the predicted binodal is in excellent agreement with recent experiments. In addition, the interfacial tension as well as the capillary length are in quantitative agreement with experimental results obtained at a number of points in the phase-coexistence region, without the use of any fit parameters.
Self-assembly scenarios of block copolymer stars
2011
We examine the self-organization scenarios of star-shaped AB-block copolymers, consisting of a solvophilic A-block and a solvophobic B-block, in which f such blocks are chemically anchored on a common centre on their A-parts, leaving the B-blocks exposed on their exterior. We employ a lattice model and we perform Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations for the case f = 6, varying thereby the percentage of attractive monomers as well as the concentration of stars. In agreement with previous studies on the low-functionality case f = 3 [F. Lo Verso, A.Z. Panagiotopoulos, and C.N. Likos, Phys. Rev. E 79, 010401(R) (2009)], we find that when the majority of monomers in the star are attractive, m…
Telechelic Star Polymers as Self-Assembling Units from the Molecular to the Macroscopic Scale
2012
By means of multiscale molecular simulations, we show that telechelic-star polymers are a simple, robust, and tunable system, which hierarchically self-assembles into soft-patchy particles and mechanically stabilizes selected, open crystalline structures. The self-aggregating patchy behavior can be fully controlled by the number of arms per star and by the fraction of attractive monomeric units at the free ends of the arms. Such self-assembled soft-patchy particles while forming, upon augmenting density, gel-like percolating networks, preserve properties as particle size, number, and arrangement of patches per particle. In particular, we demonstrate that the flexibility inherent in the soft…