摘要
Molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model of ring polymer brushes un- der compression are presented. Flexible polymer brushes are always disordered during compression, whereas semiflexible polymer brushes tend to be ordered under sufficiently strong compression. Fur- ther, the polymer monomer density of the semiflexible polymer brush is very high near the brush surface, inducing a peak value of the free energy near the surface. Therefore~ when nanoparticles are compressed in semifiexible ring polymer brushes, they tend to exhibit a closely packed single-layer structure between the brush surface and the impenetrable wall, and a quasi-two-dimensional ordered structure near the brush surface is formed under strong compression. These findings provide a new approach to designing responsive applications.
Molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model of ring polymer brushes un- der compression are presented. Flexible polymer brushes are always disordered during compression, whereas semiflexible polymer brushes tend to be ordered under sufficiently strong compression. Fur- ther, the polymer monomer density of the semiflexible polymer brush is very high near the brush surface, inducing a peak value of the free energy near the surface. Therefore~ when nanoparticles are compressed in semifiexible ring polymer brushes, they tend to exhibit a closely packed single-layer structure between the brush surface and the impenetrable wall, and a quasi-two-dimensional ordered structure near the brush surface is formed under strong compression. These findings provide a new approach to designing responsive applications.
