Solvent Structure and Molecular Forces at Polymer Interfaces
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Analysis and Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2021) | Viewed by 378
Special Issue Editor
Interests: polymers; Förster resonance energy transfer; dispersion forces; structure; molecular dynamics; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The interactions and forces at macroscopic interfaces and between microscopic solutes are implicated in a wide variety of physical phenomena within biology, chemistry, and physics. Cutting-edge experimental methods, including sum frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG) and colloidal probe atomic force microscopy (AFM), have provided us with a great amount of information on the molecular details, including structure and intermolecular forces towards interfacial regions, leading to a steady unraveling of the complexity of these systems. With the increasing capacity of computational power, simulating such systems by molecular dynamics (MD) is within reach. The use of MD allows for the unique ability to directly probe intermolecular forces from knowledge of atomic locations, leading to a comprehensive way to observe instantaneous interactions and fluctuation dynamics that has proven to be a powerful complement to experimental studies. Together, this has led to a better understanding of how intermolecular forces in interfacial regions manifest themselves as macroscopic forces that are physically meaningful (i.e., friction, wettability, attraction/repulsion), and the fundamental driving forces behind them.
This Special Issue aims to discuss state-of-the-art experimental and theoretical methods for observing and quantifying structures and forces in soft matter systems. The ultimate goal of this Special Issue will be to showcase articles that expand our understanding of how soft, deformable interfaces interact with the solvating environment itself, and with other interfaces and solutes. The specific focus will be on interfaces of polymer films, brushes, particles, and single-chain solutes, and how they interact with themselves and other interfaces in solvated environments. The breadth of content covers fundamental solvation details to complex interfacial phenomena and their dependence on environmental conditions (temperature, solvent, ionic strength, etc.), with a strong emphasis on SFG, AFM, and computational MD studies.
Research papers, as well as reviews, are welcome.
Dr. Quinn A. BesfordGuest Editor
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Keywords
- interfacial forces
- interfacial structure
- intermolecular forces
- polymer films
- polymer brushes
- polymer conformation
- polymer adhesion
- chain interpenetration effects
- solvent structure
- dispersion forces
- atomic force microscopy
- molecular dynamics simulations
- sum frequency generation spectroscopy
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