Search results for "Condensed Matter::Soft Condensed Matter"
showing 10 items of 716 documents
Non-exponential relaxation in disordered materials: Phenomenological correlations and spectrally selective experiments
1998
Abstract In most glass-forming materials external perturbations are relaxed in a non-exponential fashion. It is shown that the degree of non-exponentiality is phenomenologically correlated with the departure from simple thermally activated behavior as measured by the fragility index m. In model glass formers such as the Ge-As-Se ternary alloy, and to some degree for amorphous materials in general, the correlations with these properties are observed also for other characteristic features. These include the specific heat step and the aging kinetics in the glass transformation range. While phenomenological correlations have proven very useful for rationalizing the properties of many glass form…
Fluctuations and elastic properties of lipid membranes in the gel Lβ′ state: a coarse-grained Monte Carlo study
2010
We study the stress distribution profiles and the height and thickness fluctuations of lipid membranes in the gel L-beta ' state by Monte Carlo simulations of a generic coarse-grained model for lipid membranes, which reproduces many known properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidyncholine (DPPC) bilayers. The results are related to the corresponding properties of fluid membranes, and to theoretical predictions for crystalline and hexatic membranes. One striking observation is that the spontaneous curvature of the monolayers changes sign from the fluid to the gel phase. In the gel-phase, the long-wavelength height fluctuations are suppressed, and the fluctuation spectrum is highly anisotropic. In …
Ion motion in salt water flowing under a transverse magnetic field
2012
The problem of ion motion in an electrolyte solution flowing in a thin rectangular duct with velocity VE in the presence of a transverse magnetic field B0 is studied by means of classical mechanics and electrodynamics. Because of Lorentz force on the ions in the electrolyte solution, a so called Faraday voltage appears at the electrodes orthogonal to both the field B0 and the velocity VE. The dynamics of positive and negative ions (cations and anions, respectively) in this classical system is studied by taking into account the viscosity of the fluid and the process of charge accumulation on the opposite walls of the duct. Hydrogen production is seen to take place at one of the electrodes wh…
Dynamics of Colloidal Hard Spheres in Thin Aqueous Suspension Layers—Particle Tracking by Digital Image Processing and Brownian Dynamics Computer Sim…
1993
Abstract A new experimentally simple technique is introduced for studying dynamical properties of hard sphere colloids in thin aqueous suspension layers by light-microscopy observation supported by computer-aided digital image processing. The thickness of the layers of the colloidal samples confined between two smooth glass plates is accurately adjusted by monodisperse "spacer" spheres which are larger than the diffusing spheres. Tracking of single particles in concentrated phases is accomplished using fluorescence light microscopy where a few dyed particles are mixed with the undyed colloidal spheres of the same size. First results are presented for the self-diffusion coefficient—(i) in ve…
Perspective: The Asakura Oosawa model: A colloid prototype for bulk and interfacial phase behavior
2014
In many colloidal suspensions, the micrometer-sized particles behave like hard spheres, but when non-adsorbing polymers are added to the solution a depletion attraction (of entropic origin) is created. Since 60 years the Asakura-Oosawa model, which simply describes the polymers as ideal soft spheres, is an archetypical description for the statistical thermodynamics of such systems, accounting for many features of real colloid-polymer mixtures very well. While the fugacity of the polymers (which controls their concentration in the solution) plays a role like inverse temperature, the size ratio of polymer versus colloid radii acts as a control parameter to modify the phase diagram: when this …
Complex miscibility behaviour for polymer blends in flow
1995
Abstract Experimental observations of the effect of shear flow on the miscibility of binary polymer blends are compared to calculations based on a generalized Gibbs energy of mixing Gγ˙. This mixing free energy characterizes the steady state established at shear rateγ˙, as the sum of G z , the equilibrium Gibbs energy and E s , the energy the system stores while flowing.
Shear influence on the phase separation of oligomer blends
1994
Shear influences on the phase separation behaviour of four different blends of ethylene glycol/propylene glycol oligomers, exhibiting upper critical solution temperatures, were investigated. Cloud point curves at rest (turbidity measurements) are reported for all systems, spinodal conditions (light scattering) and tie-lines (analysis of the coexisting phases) are given for some examples. Phase diagrams under shear were obtained from rheological data. They demonstrate that the demixing temperatures of systems where both glycols bear OH end-groups are lowered up to ca. 1°C by shear rates of 1000s−1; the critical composition, generalized to the non-equilibrium conditions of flow, is markedly s…
Investigation of Finite-Size Effects in the Determination of Interfacial Tensions
2014
The interfacial tension between coexisting phases of a material is an important parameter in the description of many phenomena such as crystallization, and even today its accurate measurement remains difficult. We have studied logarithmic finite-size corrections in the determination of the interfacial tension with large scale Monte Carlo simulations, and have identified several novel contributions which not only depend on the ensemble, but also on the type of the applied boundary conditions. We present results for the Lennard-Jones system and the Ising model, as well as for hard spheres, which are particularly challenging. In the future, these findings will contribute to the understanding a…
Investigating the cooling rate dependence of amorphous silica: A computer simulation study
1996
We use molecular dynamics computer simulations to study the dependence of the properties of amorphous silica on the cooling rate with which the glass has been produced. In particular we show that the density, the glass transition temperature, the radial distribution function and the distribution of the size of the rings depend on the cooling rate.
Fluctuating Interfaces in Liquid Crystals
2008
We review and compare recent work on the properties of fluctuating interfaces between nematic and isotropic liquid-crystalline phases. Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for systems of ellipsoids and hard rods with aspect ratio 15:1, and the fluctuation spectrum of interface positions (the capillary wave spectrum) has been analyzed. In addition, the capillary wave spectrum has been calculated analytically within the Landau-de Gennes theory. The theory predicts that the interfacial fluctuations can be described in terms of a wave vector dependent interfacial tension, which is anisotropic at small wavelengths (stiff director regime) and becomes isotropic at l…