Search results for "quantitative"
showing 10 items of 2409 documents
How does the pattern of grafting points influence the structure of one-component and mixed polymer brushes?
2005
Using Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model we study the lateral structure formation of one-component polymer brushes in a bad solvent and of a mixed polymer brush upon increasing the incompatibility of the two species. We compare the morphology of the brush with a regular distribution of grafting points and with a random arrangement. Density or composition fluctuations of the grafting points enhance the formation of irregular structures but randomness prevents the formation of long-range order. Even small fluctuations of the grafting points are sufficient to pin the lateral structures of the brush.
Adsorption and structure formation of semiflexible polymers on spherical surfaces
2018
Abstract Rigid spheres with a short-range attractive potential are taken as a coarse-grained model of vesicles, which contain a solution of semiflexible polymers in their interior. Assuming good solvent conditions with an implicit description of the solvent, effective monomers experience bond-length and bond-angle potentials as well as excluded-volume interaction. Due to the attractive vesicle surface, phase separation occurs between a thin shell of adsorbed monomers at the surface and a rather dilute, and therefore, disordered polymer solution in the sphere interior. While at a planar attractive surface the wormlike chains would exhibit liquid crystalline (nematic and smectic) order, the c…
Phase Behavior of the System Linear Polyglycerol + Methanol + Carbon Dioxide
2011
To compare the phase behavior of linear and hyperbranched polymers, the phase envelopes of the ternary system linear polyglycerol + methanol + carbon dioxide were determined for polymers of varying molar mass. Phase changes were detected by a static synthetic method using the Cailletet setup for temperatures between 331 K and 421 K and pressures up to 13.1 MPa. Besides the vapor–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria, also the vapor–liquid to vapor–liquid–liquid and vapor–liquid–liquid to liquid–liquid phase boundaries are reported. The experimental results are similar to systems with hyperbranched polymers (rather than linear polymers). For the systems with linear polymers, however, the bubbl…
A thermodynamic analysis on the coincidence of extrema conditions in the sorption equilibrium for ternary polymer systems
1993
Flory-Huggins theory of polymer solutions has been used to express the condition of extrema values in the total sorption, as well as the inversion point in the preferential adsorption parameters for termary polymer systems. Two approaches have been followed, the first considers the binary and ternary interaction parameters independent of polymer concentration and solvent composition. In the second one, this dependence has been introduced. Our attention is focused on the volume fraction of solvent mixture dependence of the above parameters, in order to confirm or not the coincidence between the extrema values and the inversion point. Several cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems…
Prediction of maxima and minima in the curve of total sorption parameter in ternary polymer systems. Influence of ternary interaction parameter
1993
Flory-Huggins theory modified by Pouchly has been applied to predict maxima and minima in the curve of total sorption in ternary polymer systems formed by a polymer and two liquids. In this work, different diagrams based on experimental magnitudes easily obtained such as the difference in affinities of liquids, solvents and non solvents, and the solvent molar volume ratio. Total sorption parameter has been considered to be the decisive magnitude to define extrema conditions in both cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems. The theoretical prediction is not altered by the inclusion of ternary interactions. Different examples of ternary systems dealing with vinyl polymers and polydi…
A comparative study between cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems through the preferential adsorption coefficient
1993
Sorption equilibrium of polystyrene and poly (dimethyl siloxane) in mixed solvents has been monitored by means of the preferential adsorption coefficient experimentally determined from intensity light scattering measurements. The pairs of solvents used to dissolve each polymer sample have been selected for the purpose to perform cosolvent and cononsolvent ternary polymer systems. Flory-Huggins formalism including ternary interactions has been used to predict the sorption equilibrium for the cosolvent system and, for the first time, for cononsolvent ones. Moreover, the proportionality between binary and ternary interactions, recognized by Pouchly, is also corroborated for both ternary polyme…
Polymer brushes in solvents of variable quality: Molecular dynamics simulations using explicit solvent
2007
The structure and thermodynamic properties of a system of end-grafted flexible polymer chains grafted to a flat substrate and exposed to a solvent of variable quality are studied by molecular dynamics methods. The macromolecules are described by a coarse-grained bead-spring model, and the solvent molecules by pointlike particles, assuming Lennard-Jones-type interactions between pairs of monomers (epsilon(pp)), solvent molecules (epsilon(ss)), and solvent monomer (epsilon(ps)), respectively. Varying the grafting density sigma(g) and some of these energy parameters, we obtain density profiles of solvent particles and monomers, study structural properties of the chain (gyration radius componen…
Electronic structure of polysilanes: influence of substitution and conformation
1993
Abstract The valence effective Hamiltonian (VEH) quantum-chemical approach is used to investigate the electronic properties of polysilane. The valence band structure calculated for this fully saturated polymer is analyzed in terms of orbital contributions and compared to that of the closely related carbon polymer, polyethylene. The effects of alkyl substitution and silicon backbone conformation are studied by elucidating the modifications that these structural changes induce on the electronic valence band structure of all-trans unsubstituted polysilane. The VEH results predict a decrease of the band gap upon alkyl substitution and on going from helical to all-trans conformations.
Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Static and Dynamic Properties of a Polyethylene Melt
1999
I will discuss in this work the atomistic modelling of polymer melts using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. After a general introduction into the problems one faces in the computer simulation of polymers in general and the atomistic simulations in particular, I will present some recent work on the atomistic modelling of an — C 100 H 202 melt,i.e. short chain polyethylene (PE). The aim of this work is to establish a quantitatively validated atomistic model which then can be used in two directions. One direction is the generation of input for the calibration of parameters in coarse-grained models, which in turn can be used to simulate the polymer under investigation over a much broader te…
Entropy theory and glass transition: A test by Monte Carlo simulation
1997
This article reviews the results of a test of the Gibbs-DiMarzio theory by Monte Carlo Simulation. The simulation employed the bond-fluctuation model on a simple cubic lattice. This model incorporates two kinds of interactions: the excluded volume interaction among all monomers of the melt and an internal energy of the chains, which favors large bonds and makes the chains stiffen with decreasing temperature. The stiffening of the chains leads to an increase of their volume requirements, which competes with the packing constraints at low temperatures. This competition strongly slows down the structural relaxation of the melt and induces the glassy behavior. The model therefore takes into acc…