Search results for "soft"
showing 10 items of 9809 documents
Compression-induced anti-nematic order in glassy and semicrystalline polymers
2020
We provide new insights into the molecular origin of the asymmetry between uniaxial tensile and compressive deformation of glassy and semicrystalline polymers using molecular dynamics simulations. The difference between the two responses strongly depends on the chain length and is the largest at intermediate chain lengths. Irrespective of chain length, the intra- and interchain organization of polymers under extension and compression are remarkably distinct. The chains align along the tensile axis leading to a global nematic order of the bonds and end-to-end vectors, whereas compression reorganizes polymers to lie in planes perpendicular to the compressive axis resulting in the emergence of…
Adaptive Wetting-Adaptation in Wetting
2018
Many surfaces reversibly change their structure and interfacial energy upon being in contact with a liquid. Such surfaces adapt to a specific liquid. We propose the first order kinetic model to describe dynamic contact angles of such adaptive surfaces. The model is general and does not refer to a particular adaptation process. The aim of the proposed model is to provide a quantitative description of adaptive wetting and to link changes in contact angles to microscopic adaptation processes. By introducing exponentially relaxing interfacial energies and applying Young's equation locally, we predict a change of advancing and receding contact angles depending on the velocity of the contact line…
Correction: Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture
2017
Correction for 'Polymer-enforced crystallization of a eutectic binary hard sphere mixture' by Anna Kozina et al., Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 627-630.
Nematic elastomers: From a microscopic model to macroscopic elasticity theory
2008
A Landau theory is constructed for the gelation transition in cross-linked polymer systems possessing spontaneous nematic ordering, based on symmetry principles and the concept of an order parameter for the amorphous solid state. This theory is substantiated with help of a simple microscopic model of cross-linked dimers. Minimization of the Landau free energy in the presence of nematic order yields the neoclassical theory of the elasticity of nematic elastomers and, in the isotropic limit, the classical theory of isotropic elasticity. These phenomenological theories of elasticity are thereby derived from a microscopic model, and it is furthermore demonstrated that they are universal mean-fi…
GLASS TRANSITION IN THIN POLYMER FILMS: A MOLECULAR DYNAMICS STUDY
2002
A melt of nonentangled polymer chains confined between two smooth and purely repulsive walls is studied for various film thicknesses D and temperatures. The dynamics of the supercooled films is qualitatively identical to that of the bulk, but the walls lead to faster relaxation. To quantify this observation we analyze the data by the mode-coupling theory (MCT) of the glass transition. We find that the critical temperature of MCT, Tc(D), decreases with D and that T - Tc(D) is a relevant temperature scale. The static structure factor and dynamic correlation functions at intermediate times coincide with bulk behavior when compared to the same T - Tc(D).
Tracer diffusion in polymer and organic liquids close to the glass transition studied by forced rayleigh scattering
2007
Translational diffusion coefficients D of photochronic dye molecules have been measured by forced Rayleigh scattering in polymer diluent systems at compositions from pure polymer to pure diluent. D could be measured down to below the glass transition temperature T g. In the pure diluent, D(T g) was found typically about two decades below that in the pure polymer but still far above the Stokes-Einstein prediction extrapolated from high temperatures. Some experimental results are in contrast with predictions from free-volume theory.
Microphase separation in linear multiblock copolymers under poor solvent conditions
2010
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the phase behavior of linear multiblock copolymers with two types of monomers, A and B, where the length of the polymer blocks $N_{A}$ and $N_{B}$ ($N_{A}=N_{B}=N$), the number of the blocks $n_{A}$ and $n_{B}$ ($n_{A}=n_{B}=n$), and the solvent quality varies. The fraction $f$ of A-type monomers is kept constant and equal to 0.5. Whereas at high enough temperatures these macromolecules form coil structures, where each block A or B forms rather individual clusters, at low enough temperatures A and B monomers from different blocks can join together forming clusters of A or B monomers. The dependence of the formation of these clusters on the va…
Field-cooling experiments on the quadrupolar-glass state of (KBr)0.47(KCN)0.53
1990
The shear strain of a mixed cyanide crystal has been measured under field-cooling conditions. The time decay after field removal follows a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts law. The results are analogous to spin glasses, except that residual permanent strains can be frozen-in.
Polymer Dynamics in a Polymer-Solid Interphase: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of 1,4-Polybutadiene At a Graphite Surface
2014
A chemically realistic model of 1,4-polybutadiene confined by graphite walls in a thin film geometry was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The chemically realistic approach allows for a quantitative determination of a variety of experimentally accessible relaxation functions (e.g., dielectric, NMR, or neutron scattering responses). The simulations yield these experimental observables. Additionally, the simulations can be resolved as a function of distance to the solid interface on a much finer scale than experimentally possible, providing a detailed mechanistic picture of the segmental and large scale motions of polymers in the interfacial region between bulk polymer melts and soli…
Ion bombardment of polyethylene—influence of polymer structure
2007
Abstract Polyethylenes of various macromolecular and supermolecular structures were studied from the point of view of their susceptibility to an ion beam treatment. An influence of molecular weight (Mw), molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) and the degree of branching were compared within the set of low-density polyethylenes (LDPE) studied. An influence of the length of branches was compared between LDPE, linear low-density (LLDPE) and high-density (HDPE) polyethylenes. An influence of the degree of crystallinity and the morphology of a crystalline phase were compared for HDPE samples solidified under various thermal conditions and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Plate p…