Search results for "Method"

Dynamics of Glassy Polymer Melts in Confined Geometry: A Monte Carlo Simulation

1996

Dynamic properties of a dense polymer melt confined between two hard walls are investigated over a wide range of temperatures by dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. The temperature interval ranges from the ordinary liquid to the strongly supercooled melt. The influence of temperature, density and confinement on the polymer dynamics is studied by various mean-square displacements, structural relaxation functions and quantities derived from them (relaxation times, apparent diffusion coefficients, monomer relaxation rates), yielding the following results: The motion of the monomers and polymers close to the walls is enhanced in parallel, but reduced in perpendicular direction. This dynamic anisotr…

X-ray-absorption study of rheniumL3andL1edges inReO3: Multiple-scattering approach

1993

We present ab initio calculations of x-ray-absorption fine structure for the Re L 3 and L 1 edges in crystalline ReO 3 based on an exact curved-wave multiple-scattering approach. Good agreement between theoretical and experimental data has been found for both edges. We show that, as expected, the contribution of multiple-scattering signals from linear chains, like Re-O-Re and O-Re-O, is very large both in the L 3 - and L 1 -edge spectra due to the strong focusing effect caused by the middle atom

Unmixing of Polymer Blends Confined in Ultrathin Films:  Crossover between Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Behavior

2006

The interplay between chain conformations and phase separation in binary symmetric polymer mixtures confined into thin films by "neutral" hard walls (i.e., walls that do not preferentially attract or repel one of the two components of the mixture) is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. Using the bond fluctuation model on a simple cubic lattice in the semi grand canonical ensemble, we locate the critical temperature of demixing via finite size scaling methods for a wide range of chain lengths (16/= N/= 256 effective monomers per chain) and film thicknesses (2/= D/= 19 lattice spacings). Simultaneously, we investigate the geometrical structure of the chains, showing that despite using melt de…

Interfacial Tensions from Drop Retraction versus Pendant Drop Data and Polydispersity Effects

2004

Interfacial tensions sigma were measured by means of both methods for the following polymer pair: polyisobutylene (PIB 3) plus poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS 152) and poly(dimethyl-co-methylphenylsiloxane) (CoP26*) plus PDMS 48. The numbers after the abbreviation state the molar masses in kilograms; the homopolymers exhibit polydispersities on the order of 2. The reliability of the method of drop retraction is backed up by systematic measurements, which demonstrate that it is possible to study the time evolution of sigma. Because of the free choice of the phases (drop or matrix) and the possibility to vary the overall composition of the system in a wide range, drop retraction yields more info…

Multi-scale simulations of polymeric nanoparticle aggregation during rapid solvent exchange.

2018

Using a multi-scale approach which combines both molecular dynamics (MD) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations, we study a simple and scalable method for fabricating charge-stabilized nanoparticles through a rapid solvent exchange, i.e., Flash NanoPrecipitation (FNP). This multi-scale approach is based on microscopic information from MD simulations and uses a KMC algorithm to access macroscopic length- and time scales, which allows direct comparison with experiments and quantitative predictions. We find good agreement of our simulation results with the experiments. In addition, the model allows us to understand the aggregation mechanism on both microscopic and macroscopic levels and det…

Molecular Simulation of Polymer Melts and Blends: Methods, Phase Behavior, Interfaces, and Surfaces

2016

Penetrant diffusion in frozen polymer matrices: A finite-size scaling study of free volume percolation

1996

The diffusion of penetrant particles in frozen polymer matrices is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations of the bond fluctuation model. By applying finite-size scaling to data obtained from very large systems it is demonstrated that the diffusion process takes place on a percolating free volume cluster describable by a correlated site percolation model which falls into the same universality class as random percolation. The diverging correlation length entails a pronounced dependence of the diffusion constant on the size of the simulated system. It is shown that this dependence is appreciable for a wide range of parameters around the transition. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American …

Hybrid Lattice Boltzmann/Dynamic Self-Consistent Field Simulations of Microphase Separation and Vesicle Formation in Block Copolymer Systems

2011

We present a hybrid numerical method to introduce hydrodynamics in dynamic self-consistent field (SCF) studies of inhomogeneous polymer systems. It solves a set of coupled dynamical equations: The ...

The glass transition in polymer melts

1994

This paper presents some results of a Monte Carlo simulation for the glass transition in two- and three-dimensional polymer melts. The melt was simulated by the bond-fluctuation model on a d-dimensional cubic lattice which was combined with a two-level hamiltonian favouring long bonds in order to generate a competition between the energetic and topological constraints in the system. This competition prevents crystallization and makes the melt freeze in an amorphous structure as soon as the internal relaxation times match the observation time of the simulation set by the cooling rate. The freezing point of the melt, i.e the glass transition temperature Tg, thus depends upon the cooling rate …

Strategy for good dispersion of well-defined tetrapods in semiconducting polymer matrices.

2014

The morphology or dispersion control in inorganic/organic hybrid systems is studied, which consist of monodisperse CdSe tetrapods (TPs) with grafted semiconducting block copolymers with excess polymers of the same type. Tetrapod arm-length and amount of polymer loading are varied in order to find the ideal morphology for hybrid solar cells. Additionally, polymers without anchor groups are mixed with the TPs to study the effect of such anchor groups on the hybrid morphology. A numerical model is developed and Monte Carlo simulations to study the basis of compatibility or dispersibility of TPs in polymer matrices are performed. The simulations show that bare TPs tend to form clusters in the m…