Effects of chain stiffness and shear flow on nanoparticle dispersion and distribution in ring polymer melts

The dispersion behavior and spatial distribution of nanoparticles(NPs)in ring polymer melts are explored by using molecular dynamics(MD)simulations.As polymer-NP interactions increase,three general categories of polymer-mediated NP organization are observed,namely,contact aggregation,bridging,and steric dispersion,consistent with the results of equivalent linear ones in previous studies.In the case of direct contact aggregation among NPs,the explicit aggregation-dispersion transition of NPs in ring polymer melts can be induced by increasing the chain stiffness or applying a steady shear flow.Results further indicate that NPs can achieve an optimal dispersed state with the appropriate chain stiffness and shear flow.Moreover,shear flow cannot only improve the dispersion of NPs in ring polymer melts but also control the spatial distribution of NPs into a well-ordered structure.This improvement becomes more evident under stronger polymer-NP interactions.The observed induced-dispersion or ordered distribution of NPs may provide efficient access to the design and manufacture of high-performance polymer nanocomposites(PNCs).

Coil to globule transition of homo- and block-copolymer with different topological constraint and chain stiffness

In this paper, we present the coil-to-globule(CG) transitions of homopolymers and multiblock copolymers with different topology and stiffness by using molecular dynamics with integrated tempering sampling method. The sampling method was a novel enhanced method that efficiently sampled the energy space with low computational costs. The method proved to be efficient and precise to study the structural transitions of polymer chains with complex topological constraint, which may not be easily done by using conventional Monte Carlo method. The topological constraint affects the globule shape of the polymer chain, thus further influencing the CG transition. We found that increasing the topological constraint generally decreased CG transition temperature for homopolymers. For semiflexible chains, an additional first-order like symmetry-broken transition emerged. For block copolymers, the topological constraint did not obviously change the transition temperature, but greatly reduced the energy signal of the CG transition.

Structure dependent elastic properties of supergraphene

Complete replacement of aromatic carbon bonds in graphene by carbyne chains gives rise to supergraphene whose mechanical properties are expected to depend on its structure. However, this dependence is to date unclear. In this paper, explicit expressions for the in-plane stiffness and Poisson＇s ratio of supergraphene are obtained using a molecular mechanics model. The theoretical results show that the in-plane stiffness of supergraphene is drastically（at least one order） smaller than that of graphene, whereas its Poisson＇s ratio is higher than 0.5. As the index number increases（i.e., the length of carbyne chains increases and the bond density decreases）, the in-plane stiffness of supergraphene decreases while the Poisson＇s ratio increases. By analyzing the relation among the layer modulus, in-plane stiffness and Poisson＇s ratio, it is revealed that the mechanism of the faster decrease in the in-plane stiffness than the bond density is due to the increase of Poisson＇s ratio. These findings are useful for future applications of supergraphene in nanomechanical systems.

Brownian Dynamics Simulations of Rigid Polyelectrolyte Chains Grafting to Spherical Colloid

Brownian dynamics simulations are employed to explore the effects of chain stiffness and trivalent salt concentration on the conformational behavior of spherical polyelectrolyte brush. The rigid brush adopts bundle-like morphology at a wide range of trivalent salt concentration. The number variation of bundles pinned on the colloid surface shows a non-monotonic profile as a function of the chain stiffness. The radial distributions of monomers and ions and the charge ratio between condensed ions and monomers are calculated. The charge inversion is observed for the high salt concentration regardless of chain rigidity. Furthermore, the pair correlation functions of monomer-monomer and monomer-salt cation are used to elucidate the aggregated mechanism of the bundle-like structure.