Search results for "Excluded volume"
showing 10 items of 33 documents
Structure of Polymer Brushes in Cylindrical Tubes: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation
2006
Molecular Dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model of flexible macromolecules tethered with one end to the surface of a cylindrical pore are presented. Chain length $N$ and grafting density $\sigma$ are varied over a wide range and the crossover from ``mushroom'' to ``brush'' behavior is studied for three pore diameters. The monomer density profile and the distribution of the free chain ends are computed and compared to the corresponding model of polymer brushes at flat substrates. It is found that there exists a regime of $N$ and $\sigma$ for large enough pore diameter where the brush height in the pore exceeds the brush height on the flat substrate, while for large enoug…
Intermolecular structure factors of macromolecules in solution: Integral equation results
1999
The inter-molecular structure of semidilute polymer solutions is studied theoretically. The low density limit of a generalized Ornstein-Zernicke integral equation approach to polymeric liquids is considered. Scaling laws for the dilute-to-semidilute crossover of random phase (RPA) like structure are derived for the inter-molecular structure factor on large distances when inter-molecular excluded volume is incorporated at the microscopic level. This leads to a non-linear equation for the excluded volume interaction parameter. For macromolecular size-mass scaling exponents, $\nu$, above a spatial-dimension dependent value, $\nu_c=2/d$, mean field like density scaling is recovered, but for $\n…
Statics and Dynamics of Bidisperse Polymer Melts: A Monte Carlo Study of the Bond-Fluctuation Model
1998
As a first step toward the computer simulation of polydisperse polymeric melts, a lattice model containing two types of chains with lengths N1 = 20 − x and N2 = 20 + 4x (0 ≤ x ≤ 10 ) is studied. This variation of x, together with the fixed composition of 80% of short and 20% of long chains, leads to a polydispersity of 1 ≤ Nw/Nn ≤ 2 (Nw, Nn: weight-, number-average chain lengths). To represent dense melts, the bond-fluctuation model at a volume fraction, φ = 1/2, of occupied lattice sites is used. The simulation treats both the athermal case (chain connectivity and excluded volume interaction only) and a thermal case, where additionally a choice for the bond length and bond angle potential…
A comparative study on Kθ evaluation from [η]-M data in single and mixed solvents through various excluded volume theories
1991
Abstract By allowing for the dependence of B on molecular weight, through its relationship with A2, modified Flory-Fox-Schaefgen, Kurata-Stockmayer-Roig, Berry and Inagaki-Suzuki-Kurata equations are obtained, relating [η] to A2 and to Kθ. Through these equations, Kθ can be determined from data sets for [η]-A2. Because of the scarcity of these data sets, A2 values have been calculated from experimental data for [η] and trial Kθ values through two parameter theories, namely, through the Flory-Krigbaum-Orofino theory for Ψ. Iterative processes were followed until coincidence was obtained between trial Kθ values and those evaluated from the modified excluded volume equations. The method has be…
Polymer solutions confined in slit-like pores with attractive walls: An off-lattice Monte Carlo study of static properties and chain dynamics
1996
Using a bead spring model of flexible polymer chains, the density profiles and chain configurational properties of polymer solutions confined between parallel plates were studied. A wide range of density ϕ, chain length N, and strength e of a short-range attractive wall potential was investigated. Both a temperature T in the good solvent regime (T > θ, θ being the Theta temperature where a chain in unconfined bulk three-dimensional solution would behave ideally) and a temperature in the bad solvent regime (T θ) show a crossover from two-dimensional excluded volume behavior (Rg ∝ N2ν with ν = 3/4) to ideal random walk behavior (ν = 1/2), the relaxation times show effective exponents Zeff (τ …
Stability of negatively charged platelets in calcium-rich anionic copolymer solutions.
2014
Controlling the stability of anisotropic particles is key to the development of advanced materials. Here, we report an investigation, by means of mesoscale molecular dynamics simulations, of the stability and structural change of calcium-rich dispersions containing negatively charged nanoplatelets, neutralized by calcium counterions, in the presence of either comb copolymers composed of anionic backbones with attached neutral side chains or anionic-neutral linear block copolymers. In agreement with experimental observations, small stacks of platelets (tactoids) are formed, which are greatly stabilized in the presence of copolymers. In the absence of polymers, tactoids will grow and aggregat…
Structure of bottle-brush brushes under good solvent conditions: a molecular dynamics study.
2011
We report a simulation study for bottle-brush polymers grafted on a rigid backbone. Using a standard coarse-grained bead-spring model extensive molecular dynamics simulations for such macromolecules under good solvent conditions are performed. We consider a broad range of parameters and present numerical results for the monomer density profile, density of the untethered ends of the grafted flexible backbones and the correlation function describing the range that neighboring grafted bottle-brushes are affected by the presence of the others due to the excluded volume interactions. The end beads of the flexible backbones of the grafted bottle-brushes do not access the region close to the rigid…
Coil-bridge transition in a single polymer chain as an unconventional phase transition: theory and simulation.
2014
The coil-bridge transition in a self-avoiding lattice chain with one end fixed at height H above the attractive planar surface is investigated by theory and Monte Carlo simulation. We focus on the details of the first-order phase transition between the coil state at large height H ⩾ Htr and a bridge state at H ⩽ Htr, where Htr corresponds to the coil-bridge transition point. The equilibrium properties of the chain were calculated using the Monte Carlo pruned-enriched Rosenbluth method in the moderate adsorption regime at (H/Na)tr ⩽ 0.27 where N is the number of monomer units of linear size a. An analytical theory of the coil-bridge transition for lattice chains with excluded volume interact…
Stimuli-responsive brushes with active minority components: Monte Carlo study and analytical theory
2015
Using a combination of analytical theory, Monte Carlo simulations, and three dimensional self-consistent field calculations, we study the equilibrium properties and the switching behavior of adsorption-active polymer chains included in a homopolymer brush. The switching transition is driven by a conformational change of a small fraction of minority chains, which are attracted by the substrate. Depending on the strength of the attractive interaction, the minority chains assume one of two states: An exposed state characterized by a stem-crown-like conformation, and an adsorbed state characterized by a flat two-dimensional structure. Comparing the Monte Carlo simulations, which use an Edwards-…
Structure and dynamics of thin polymer films: a case study with the bond-fluctuation model
2002
Abstract This paper reports Monte Carlo simulation results of a polymer melt of short, non-entangled chains which are embedded between two impenetrable walls. The melt is simulated by the bond-fluctuation lattice model under athermal conditions, i.e. only excluded volume interactions between the monomers and between the monomers and the walls are taken into account. In the simulations, the wall separation is varied from about one to about 15 times the bulk radius of gyration R g . The confinement influences both static and dynamic properties of the films: Chains close to the walls preferentially orient parallel to it. This parallel orientation decays with increasing distances from the wall …