Search results for "Chemical physics"

Theory of nucleation and crystal growth of polymers in concentrated solutions

1974

ABSTRACT The process of crystallization in concentrated solutions depends strongly on the rate of crystallization and the rate of long range diffusion of the polymer chains. If the crystallization proceeds slowly compared to diffusion, this type of crystal nucleus will be formed for which the free energy of nucleation is smallest. By taking into account entropy effects which are characteristic for chain molecules one can show that the crystal with smallest free energy of nucleation is a crystal with almost regular chain folds on the surfaces. The influence of supercooling, concentration and molecular weight on the thickness and growth rate of such crystals is discussed. If the crystallizati…

Role of residual water hydrogen bonding in sugar/water/biomolecule systems: a possible explanation fortrehalose peculiarity

2007

We report on the set of experimental and simulative evidences which enabled us to suggest how biological structures embedded in a non-liquid water–saccharide solvent are anchored to the surrounding matrix via a hydrogen bond network. Such a network, whose rigidity increases by decreasing the sample water content, couples the degrees of freedom of the biostructure to those of the matrix and gives place to protein–saccharide–water structures (protein–solvent conformational substates). In particular, the whole set of data evidences that, while the protein–sugar interaction is well described in terms of a water entrapment hypothesis, the water replacement hypothesis better describes the sugar–m…

Spin Crossover Phenomenon in Coordination Compounds

2016

Flexible Chirality in Self-Assembled N-Annulated Perylenedicarboxamides.

2017

N-annulated perylenedicarboxamides 1-3 form supramolecular polymers with a strong tendency to aggregate. The bundles of fibers formed generate a spontaneous anisotropy that conditions the chiroptical features of the described molecules in solution; a strong linear dichroism effect accompanies the circular dichroism (CD) outcome. There is no influence of the point chirality existing at the side chains of 1 and 2, and these molecules present the same chiroptical features as achiral 3. Mechanical rotary stirring increases the CD response and the sign of the dichroic signal changes with the stirring direction. Theoretical calculations indicate that the self-assembly of 1-3 in helical columnar s…

A slow process in confined polymer melts: layer exchange dynamics at a polymer solid interface

2010

Employing Molecular Dynamics simulations of a chemically realistic model of 1,4-polybutadiene between graphite walls we show that the mass exchange between layers close to the walls is a slow process already in the melt state. For the glass transition of confined polymers this process competes with the slowing down due to packing effects and intramolecular rotation barriers.

Persistent photovoltage in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite solar cells

2014

Open circuit voltage decay measurements are performed on methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) perovskite solar cells to investigate the charge carrier recombination dynamics. The measurements are compared to the two reference polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells based on P3HT:PC60BM and PTB7:PC70BM blends. In the perovskite devices, two very different time domains of the voltage decay are found, with a first drop on a short time scale that is similar to the organic solar cells. However, two major differences are also observed. 65-70% of the maximum photovoltage persists on much longer timescales, and the recombination dynamics are dependent on the illumination intensity.

Molecular Tuning of the Magnetic Response in Organic Semiconductors

2017

The tunability of high-mobility organic semi-conductors (OSCs) holds great promise for molecular spintronics. In this study, we show this extreme variability - and therefore potential tunability - of the molecular gyromagnetic coupling ("g-") tensor with respect to the geometric and electronic structure in a much studied class of OSCs. Composed of a structural theme of phenyl- and chalcogenophene (group XVI element containing, five-membered) rings and alkyl functional groups, this class forms the basis of several intensely studied high-mobility polymers and molecular OSCs. We show how in this class the g-tensor shifts, $\Delta g$, are determined by the effective molecular spin-orbit couplin…

Surface anchoring on liquid crystalline polymer brushes

2002

We present a Monte Carlo study of the surface anchoring of a nematic fluid on swollen layers of grafted liquid crystalline chain molecules. The liquid crystalline particles are modeled by soft repulsive ellipsoids, and the chains are made of the same particles. An appropriately modified version of the configurational bias Monte Carlo algorithm is introduced, which removes and redistributes chain bonds rather than whole monomers. With this algorithm, a wide range of grafting densities could be studied. The substrate is chosen such that it favors a planar orientation (parallel to the surface). Depending on the grafting density, we find three anchoring regimes: planar, tilted, and perpendicula…

Effective pair potential between charged nanoparticles at high volume fractions

2017

Simulations of charged colloidal dispersions are technically challenging. One possible workaround consists in reducing the system to the colloids only, whose interactions are described through an effective pair potential, wf. Still, the determination of wf is difficult mainly because it depends on the colloidal density, ϕ. Here we propose to calculate wf from simulations of a pair of colloids placed in a cubic box with periodic boundary conditions. The variation in ϕ is mimicked by an appropriate change in the concentration of counterions neutralized by an homogeneous background charge. The method is tested at the level of the primitive model. A good description of the structure of the coll…

Dynamics of cross polarization in solid state nuclear magnetic resonance experiments of amorphous and heterogeneous natural organic substances

2008

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on carbon-13 in the solid state were done with cross polarization (CP) and magic angle spinning (MAS) in order to overcome the low NMR sensitivity of (13)C and the chemical shift anisotropy, respectively. In the present research, CPMAS (13)C-NMR spectra were collected by modulating the contact time needed for cross polarization (variable contact times experiments, VCT) on two different humic acids (a soil-HA and a coal-HA). VCT data were fitted by a model containing either a monotonic or a non-monotonic cross polarization term. The non-monotonic model, which fitted the experimental results better than the monotonic one, provided two cross-polariz…