Search results for "Polymers"
showing 10 items of 3567 documents
Mean square radius of gyration and hydrodynamic radius of jointed star (dumbbell) and H-comb polymers
1996
Equations for the mean square radius of gyration and the hydrodynamic radius for jointed stars (dumbbells) and H-combs are derived, based on random flight statistics for each subchain. Comparision with literature data on computer simulations and experimental data for H-combs show good agreement for the g-value of the mean square radius of gyration even in good solvents. This suggests that for the mean square radius of gyration the relative dimension of a H-comb relative to the linear molecule of the same degree of polymerization is not altered significantly by long range interactions, as in the case of star polymers. For the hydrodynamic radius the situation is different. Fair agreement is …
Local dynamics in supramolecular polymer networks probed by magnetic particle nanorheology
2019
Transient supramolecular polymer networks are promising candidates as soft self-healing or stimuli-sensitive materials. In this paper, we employ a novel nanorheological approach, magnetic particle nanorheology (MPN), in order to better understand the local dynamic properties of model supramolecular networks from a molecular point of view. Hence, the bond strength between four-arm star-shaped polyethylene glycol (PEG) functionalized at the four extremities with terpyridine ligands is tuned by implementing different metal ions with variable complexation affinities for the ligand. We show that MNP allows for the evaluation of the strength and connectivity of the polymer networks by the estimat…
Adsorption of Oligomers and Polymers into a Polymer Brush Formed from Grafted Ring Polymers
2013
The interaction of a ring polymer brush with a solution containing oligomers or free linear flexible macromolecules is studied by Monte Carlo simulation, varying the chain length of the free chains, and in selected cases also the lengths of the rings. Two grafting densities are studied, corresponding to semidilute and very concentrated conditions, and a comparison with the corresponding case of brushes formed from grafted linear chains is made. Although the ring polymer linear dimensions in the brushes show an anomalous scaling with ring length, similar to (noncatenated) ring polymer melts, the concentration profiles of oligomers and long macromolecules in ring polymer brushes differ only v…
Influence of chain stiffness on knottedness in single polymers.
2013
In the present article, we investigate and review the influence of chain stiffness on self-entanglements and knots in a single polymer chain with Monte Carlo simulations spanning good solvent, theta and globular phases. The last-named are of particular importance as a model system for DNA in viral capsids. Intriguingly, the dependence of knot occurrence and complexity with increasing stiffness is non-trivial, but can be understood with a few simple concepts outlined in the present article.
Modeling Studies of the Phase Behavior of Monomer/Polymer/Disk Composites
2008
The model developed by Balazs et al. to explain the phase behavior of polymer/clay composites is extended to monomer/polymer/clay composites, obtaining an expression for the free energy of a monomer/polymer/thin-disk mixture. By minimizing the free energy and calculating the chemical potentials of the three system components, phase diagrams for the monomer/disk and monomer/polymer/disk mixtures are contructed. Through the evolution and comparison of these diagrams, the effects of nanodisk size, polymer molecular mass and interaction parameters (temperature) on mixture stability and attained morphology are then studied.
Static and dynamic scaling behavior of a polymer melt model with triple-well bending potential
2018
We perform molecular-dynamics simulations for polymer melts of the coarse-grained polyvinyl alcohol model that crystallizes upon slow cooling. To establish the properties of its high temperature liquid state as a reference point, we characterize in detail the structural features of equilibrated polymer melts with chain lengths $5\le N \le 1000$ at a temperature slightly above their crystallization temperature. We find that the conformations of sufficiently long polymers with $N >50$ obey essentially the Flory's ideality hypothesis. The chain length dependence of the end-to-end distance and the gyration radius follow the scaling predictions of ideal chains and the probability distributions o…
Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations of Flow-Assisted Polymerization
2012
We performed kinetic Monte Carlo simulations on a model of a polymerization process in the presence of a periodic oscillatory flow to explore the role of mixing in polymerization reactors. Application of an oscillatory flow field helps overcome the diffusive limitations that develop during a polymerization process due to an increase in the molecular weights of polymer chains, thereby giving rise to high rates of polymerization. A systematic increase in the flow strength results in a "dynamic" coil-stretch transition, leading to an elongation of polymer chains. Reactive ends of stretched (polymer) chains react more frequently than the reactive ends of coiled chains, which are screened by oth…
Conformational Properties of End-Grafted Bottlebrush Polymers
2020
Scaling analysis combined with free-energy calculations and molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model have been used to study the structural properties of planar brushes ...
Monte Carlo simulation studies of the interfaces between polymeric and other solids as models for fiber-matrix interactions in advanced composite mat…
1996
As a coarse-grained model for dense amorphous polymer systems interacting with solid walls (i.e., the fiber surface in a composite), the bond fluctuation model of flexible polymer chains confined between two repulsive surfaces is studied by extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Choosing a potential for the length of an effective bond that favors rather long bonds, the full temperature region from ordinary polymer melts down to the glass transition is accessible. It is shown that in the supercooled state near the glass transition an “interphase” forms near the walls, where the structure of the melt is influenced by the surface. This “interphase” already shows up in static properties, but also h…
Interaction Between Polymer Brush-Coated Spherical Nanoparticles: Effect of Solvent Quality
2012
The interaction between two spherical polymer brushes in solvents of variable quality is studied by molecular dynamics simulation and by self-consistent field theory, varying both the radius of the spherical particles and their distance, as well as the grafting density and the chain length of the end-grafted flexible polymer chains. Both the potential of mean force between the particles as a function of their distance is computed, for various choices of the parameters mentioned above, and the structural characteristics are discussed (density profiles, average end-to-end distance of grafted chains, etc.) It is found that for rather short chain lengths and not too large grafting densities, is…