Search results for "soft"
showing 10 items of 9809 documents
The effect of pressure on the liquid–liquid phase equilibrium of two polydisperse polyalkylsiloxane blends
2002
The effect of pressure-induced immiscibility in polymer blends is investigated by experimental and theoretical methods. Experimental data of cloud point curves and critical points are obtained by turbidity measurements. The chosen system is a mixture of polydimethylsiloxane and polyhexylmethylsiloxane which is one of the very few polymer blends exhibiting pressure-induced immiscibility. This unusual behaviour is related to a critical temperature minimum of the critical curve and cloud point isopleths at positive pressure in the temperature–pressure diagram. The effect of the chain length on the critical temperature minimum is investigated here based on theoretical models. The effect of diff…
Polydispersity effects on the phase diagram of the system chloroform/poly-l-(lactic acid)/poly(methyl methacrylate) and morphology of PLA/PMMA films
2000
Abstract Cloud point curve, critical composition and several critical coexistence curves were measured at 25°C for the ternary system poly- l -(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) — where both polymers exhibit broad molecular weight distributions — and the common solvent chloroform. In contrast to the situation encountered in the absence of the second polymer both branches of the critical coexistence curves are located without any doubt inside the miscibility gap as defined by the cloud point curve. This unexpected experimental finding is corroborated by model calculations on the basis of continuous thermodynamics. The removal of solvent from the ternary mixtures yields fil…
A slow process in confined polymer melts: layer exchange dynamics at a polymer solid interface
2010
Employing Molecular Dynamics simulations of a chemically realistic model of 1,4-polybutadiene between graphite walls we show that the mass exchange between layers close to the walls is a slow process already in the melt state. For the glass transition of confined polymers this process competes with the slowing down due to packing effects and intramolecular rotation barriers.
On what terms and why the thermodynamic properties of polymer solutions depend on chain length up to the melt
2003
Theoretical considerations based on chain connectivity and conformational variability of polymers have lead to an uncomplicated relation for the dependence of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter, chi, on the volume fraction of the polymer, phi, and on its number of segments, N. The validity of this expression is being tested extensively by means of vapor pressure measurements and inverse gas chromatography (complemented by osmotic and light scattering data from literature) for solutions of poly(dimethylsiloxane) in the thermodynamically vastly different solvents n-octane (n-C8), toluene (TL), and methylethylketone (MEK) over the entire range of composition for at least six different mol…
Surface anchoring on liquid crystalline polymer brushes
2002
We present a Monte Carlo study of the surface anchoring of a nematic fluid on swollen layers of grafted liquid crystalline chain molecules. The liquid crystalline particles are modeled by soft repulsive ellipsoids, and the chains are made of the same particles. An appropriately modified version of the configurational bias Monte Carlo algorithm is introduced, which removes and redistributes chain bonds rather than whole monomers. With this algorithm, a wide range of grafting densities could be studied. The substrate is chosen such that it favors a planar orientation (parallel to the surface). Depending on the grafting density, we find three anchoring regimes: planar, tilted, and perpendicula…
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 …
Electroactive Liquid Crystalline Polymers ☆
2017
As with low molecular mass liquid crystals, the polymeric liquid crystalline compounds show many possibilities for interaction with electrical fields. Charge transport via the aromatic cores allows the construction of light emitting devices, field effect transistors and photovoltaic cells. The order of the liquid crystalline phases helps to improve intramolecular charge transfer and the mobility allows easy alignment. Liquid crystalline polymers with ferroelectric phases can be used in fast switching optical devices. Their unique switching mechanism proceeds under reduced interaction with the polymer chains. The combination of liquid crystallinity with elastomer networks leads to electromec…
Contour-Variable Model of Constitutive Equations for Polymer Melts
2009
Based on a modified expression of the rate of the convective constraint release, we present a new contour-variable model of constitutive equations in which the non-uniform segmental stretch and the non-Gaussian chain statistical treatment of the single chain are considered to describe the polymer chain dynamics and the rheological behavior of an entangled system composed of linear polymer chains. The constitutive equations are solved numerically in the cases of steady shear and transient start-up of steady shear. The results indicate that the orientation and stretch, as well as the tube survival probability, have strong dependence on the chain contour variable, especially in the high-shear-…
A Solution to the Problem of the Maximal Number of Symbols for Biomolecular Computer
2019
The authors present a solution to the problem of generating the maximum possible number of symbols for a biomolecular computer using restriction enzyme BbvI and ligase as the hardware, and transition molecules built of double-stranded DNA as the software. The presented solution offers an answer to the open question, in the algorithm form, of the maximal number of symbols for a biomolecular computer that makes use of the restriction enzyme BbvI.
Wetting of mesoscopic soft cylinders: structure and layering transitions.
1998
The wetting of soft mesoscopic long-chain particles is studied. As a model system, a cylindrical brush with poly(vinyl)pyridine side chains on the water surface is characterized by isotherms and x-ray reflectivity. The forces from the two planar interfaces and the intra- and interparticle interactions are all of comparable magnitude. Two layering transitions occur, one from the monolayer to the double layer, the next to a homogeneous multilayer. The hard wall from which layering starts is the smooth polymer/air interface. Indeed, they particles in the top layer of both the double- and the multilayer have their cylinder axis parallel to the surface and are laterally compressed. In contrast, …