0000000000744422

AUTHOR

N. Pistoor

Scattering function and the dynamics of phase separation in polymer mixtures under shear flow

The phenomenological mean-field theory describing concentration fluctuations and spinodal decomposition of binary mixtures of long flexible macromolecules is generalized to mixtures under steady shear flow. This shear flow leads to a partial orientation and stretching of the coils, as well as to an anisotropic deformation of concentration fluctuations. Generalizing the approach of Onuki and Kawasaki, we obtain the collective scattering function describing these concentration fluctuations in the mixture under shear flow. Both the steady-state situation in the one-phase region and the initial stages of spinodal decomposition for concentrations inside of the spinodal curve are considered.

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Structure and dynamics of yukawa systems

Abstract Results of molecular dynamics simulations modelling two component charge stabilized colloidal particles interacting via a Yukawa potential are presented. After cooling, the systems freeze into either substitutionally disordered imperfect crystals or into glasslike states. This freezing is characterized by the divergence of a suitable correlation time due to loss of ergodicity. Describing the structure by bond correlation functions, local orientational ordering is observed in the glassy states which is not present in the liquid. In the liquid the diffusion constant obeys an Arrhenius law. As can be deduced from the van Hove functions, in the crystal the particles only oscillate arou…

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Molecular dynamics simulations of colloids: Supercooled Yukawa systems

We performed molecular dynamics simulations on one and two component Yukawa systems. Cooling the system down and inspecting pair distribution functions (pdf) and bond correlation functions (bcf) we found the one component system to crystallize into a bcc-like lattice rather than an fcc lattice which is the stable phase of the simulated system at low temperatures. Upon cooling the two component system freezes into a glassy state without exhibiting crystalline structure in pdf or bcf. We define particle excess functions which show that spacial fluctuations in the number density of particles of the different components decay quite slowly. Therefore we believe that a well defined state of the t…

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